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What Your Soldier Wants - Really, Really Wants - Is No-one Shooting Back At Him.
-Terry Pratchett
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What Your Soldier Wants

Terry Pratchett
...
What Your Soldier Wants - Really, Really Wants - Is No-one Shooting Back At Him.

Understanding the Quote: "what your soldier wants - really, really wants - is no-one shooting..."

This quote by Terry Pratchett reflects deeply on the theme of soldier. It connects to the universal human journey of purpose, motivation, and reflection. Often categorized under Soldier, Shooting, Want, the quote offers insight, emotional clarity, and intellectual inspiration to readers worldwide.

Whether you’re a student exploring new ideas, a leader trying to motivate your team, or someone seeking direction in life — this quote provides value. It resonates because it’s more than words — it’s a bridge between experience and wisdom. It shows how Terry Pratchett interprets life's core challenges and triumphs.

Lessons From the Quote

This quote teaches resilience and focus. It reminds readers that no matter where they stand in life, reflection and self-awareness lead to growth. Each word has meaning, and when studied, it becomes clear how impactful thoughtful language can be.

About Terry Pratchett

Terry Pratchett is celebrated for insightful thoughts on soldier and shooting. Their legacy lives on through writings that guide, comfort, and inspire. Discover more on their profile page.

Actionable Takeaways

  • Reflect on how this quote applies to your current life path.
  • Share the message with someone who needs inspiration.
  • Write your thoughts on this quote in a journal or blog post.
  • Use it as a daily affirmation or reminder.

Closing Thoughts

Quotes like this endure because they capture universal truths. They comfort us in solitude and empower us in groups. Carry this quote forward — live by its wisdom, share its message, and keep its essence alive.

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Topic
Soldier
Shooting
Want
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Coffins
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Kitchen
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House
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Might
Feels
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Yeah
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Mad
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Way
Painful
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Skulls
Scary
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Religion
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Children
Stupid
I Have A Living Will And I Have Friends, And I Have Money And I Have Hope.
Having Hope
It's Not Brits Who Think American Readers Are A Bunch Of Whinging Morons With The Geo-social Understanding Of A Wire Coathanger, It's American Editors.
Thinking
Editors
Understanding
Nothing But Dust And Fundamentalists.
Dust
While A Book Has Got To Be Worthwhile From The Point Of View Of The Reader It's Got To Be Worthwhile From The Point Of View Of The Writer As Well.
Book
Views
Worthwhile
Why Not? If Enough People Believe, You Can Be God Of Anything.
Believe
People
Why Not
Nanny Ogg Could See The Future In The Froth On A Beer Mug. It Invariably Showed That She Was Going To Enjoy A Refreshing Drink Which She Almost Certainly Was Not Going To Pay For.
Beer
Nannies
Pay
People Are Often So Busy Living That They Never Stop To Wonder Why.
People
Wonder
Busy
Because Some Stories End, But Old Stories Go On, And You Gotta Dance To The Music If You Want To Stay Ahead
Stories
Goes On
Want
There Were No Lies Here. All Fancies Fled Away. That's What Happened In All Deserts. It Was Just You, And What You Believed.
Lying
Fancy
Desert
And We Don't Often Get Any Wading Birds In The River Ankh, Mainly Because The Pollution Would Eat Their Legs Away And Anyway, It's Easier For Them To Walk On The Surface.
Rivers
Bird
Ankh
Nothing Has To Be True Forever. Just For Long Enough, To Tell You The Truth.
Long
Forever
Enough
Inside Every Sane Person There’s A Madman Struggling To Get Out.
Struggle
Fantasy
Discworld
The Thing About Witchcraft," Said Mistress Weatherwax, "is That It's Not Like School At All. First You Get The Test, And Then Afterward You Spend Years Findin' Out How You Passed It. It's A Bit Like Life In That Respect
School
Years
Mistress
He Sighed. It Had Come To This. He Was A Responsible Authority, And People Could Use Terms Like "core Values" At Him With Impunity.
People
Use
Authority
Although She Was Aware That Somewhere Under Her Complicated Strata Of Vests And Petticoats There Was Some Skin, That Didn't Mean To Say She Approved Of It.
Mean
Somewhere Under
Skins
It Was Sad, Like Those Businessmen Who Came To Work In Serious Clothes But Wore Colorful Ties In A Mad, Desperate Attempt To Show There Was A Free Spirit In There Somewhere.
Clothes
Ties
Mad
The Sign, Which Says: "do Not, Under Any Circumstances, Open This Door!" - Of Course, I've Read It. Why Do You Think I Want It Opened?.. To See Why They Wanted It Shut, Of Course. This Exchange Contains Almost All You Need To Know About Human Civilization. At Least, Those Bits Of It That Are Now Under The Sea, Fenced Off Or Still Smoking.
Thinking
Sea
Civilization
The More You Think About It, The More Amazing The Everyday World Of Human Beings Becomes: Most Of It Doesn't Actually Exist At All.
Thinking
Everyday
World
Every Procedure For Getting A Cat To Take A Pill Works Fine - Once. Like The Borg, They Learn.
Cat
Pills
Borg
No It's Not!" Said Constable Visit. "atheism Is A Denial Of A God." "therefore It Is A Religious Position," Said Dorfl. "indeed, A True Atheist Thinks Of The Gods Constantly, Albeit In Terms Of Denial. Therefore, Atheism Is A Form Of Belief. If The Atheist Truly Did Not Believe, He Or She Would Not Bother To Deny.
Religious
Atheist
Believe
If You Don't Turn Your Life Into A Story, You Just Become A Part Of Someone Else's Story.
Life
Powerful
Fantasy Stories
I Believe In Reincarnation,” [bjorn] Said. I Know. “i Tried To Live A Good Life. Does That Help?” That’s Not Up To Me. Death Coughed. Of Course... Since You Believe In Reincarnation... You’ll Be Bjorn Again.
Good Life
Believe
Doe
People Don't Like To Say Fantasy They Say Magic Realism Which Means Fantasy Written By Somebody I Went To University With.
Mean
Magic Realism
People
There Has Been A Lot Of Bad Fantasy In The Past - I'm By No Means Saying That All Classic Fantasy Out There Is Bad - But There Has Been A Lot Of Bad Fantasy Written By People Who Read A Lot Of Fantasy And So All They Keep Doing Is Recycling It.
Mean
Past
People
There's One Thing You Can Say For Air Pollution, You Get Utterly Amazing Sunrises.
Air
Sunrise
Pollution
He Moved In A Way That Suggested He Was Attempting The World Speed Record For The Nonchalant Walk.
Records
World
Way
Experience Has Taught Me That You Feel Better On A Flight If You Avoid Chicken Fat In Plastic Sauce.
Feel Better
Sauce
Taught
They Looked At One Another In Incomprehension, Two Minds Driving Opposite Ways Up A Narrow Street And Waiting For The Other Man To Reverse First.
Men
Opposites
Two
And Then You Bit Onto Them, And Learned Once Again That Cut-me-own-throat Dibbler Could Find A Use For Bits Of An Animal That The Animal Didn't Know It Had Got. Dibbler Had Worked Out That With Enough Fried Onions And Mustard People Would Eat Anything.
Food
Cutting
Animal
Any Wizard Bright Enough To Survive For Five Minutes Was Also Bright Enough To Realize That If There Was Any Power In Demonology, Then It Lay With The Demons. Using It For Your Own Purposes Would Be Like Trying To Beat Mice To Death With A Rattlesnake.
Trying
Wizards
Would Be
Apes Had It Worked Out. No Ape Would Philosophize, "the Mountain Is, And Is Not." They Would Think, "the Banana Is. I Will Eat The Banana. There Is No Banana. I Want Another Banana.
Thinking
Mountain
Want
It's Amazing How Fast Gold Works.
Gold
And Sam Vimes Thought: Why Is Young Sam's Nursery Full Of Farmyard Animals Anyway? Why Are His Books Full Of Moo-cows And Baa-lambs? He Is Growing Up In The City. He Will Only See Them On A Plate! They Go Sizzle!
Growing Up
Book
Animal
Oh, He Did His Best To Make Their Short Lives Miserable, Because That Was His Job, But Nothing He Could Think Up Was Half As Bad As The Stuff They Thought Up Themselves.
Jobs
Short Life
Thinking
The Merest Accident Of Microgeography Had Meant That The First Man To Hear The Voice Of Om, And Who Gave Om His View Of Humans, Was A Shepherd And Not A Goatherd. They Have Quite Different Ways Of Looking At The World, And The Whole Of History Might Have Been Different. For Sheep Are Stupid, And Have To Be Driven. But Goats Are Intelligent, And Need To Be Led.
Stupid
Intelligent
Men
It Doesn't Matter How You Live And Die, It's How The Bards Wrote It Down.
Matter
Bards
Dies
The Conversation Of Human Beings Seldom Interested Him, But It Crossed His Mind That The Males And Females Always Got Along Best When Neither Actually Listened Fully To What The Other One Was Saying.
Mind
Males
Female
Funny, Reely," He Said. "you Spend Your Whole Life Goin' To School And Learnin' Stuff, And They Never Tell You About Stuff Like The Bermuda Triangle And Ufos And All These Old Masters Running Around The Inside Of The Earth. Why Do We Have To Learn Boring Stuff When There's All This Brilliant Stuff We Could Be Learnin', That's What I Want To Know.
Running
School
Triangles
Few Things Are Hidden From A Quiet Child With Good Eyesight.
Children
Quiet
Eyesight
Where's The Pleasure In Bein' The Winner If The Loser Ain't Alive To Know They've Lost?
Alive
Loser
Winner
If Complete And Utter Chaos Was Lightning, Then He'd Be The Sort To Stand On A Hilltop In A Thunderstorm Wearing Wet Copper Armour And Shouting 'all Gods Are Bastards!
Stupid
Religion
Lightning
I Don't Regret It, You Know. I Would Do It All Again. Children Are Our Hope For The Future." There Is No Hope For The Future, Said Death. "what Does It Contain, Then?" Me.
Children
Regret
Doe
Sheep Are Stupid, And Have To Be Driven. But Goats Are Intelligent, And Need To Be Led.
Funny
Stupid
Animal
The Thing With Crowns Is, It Isn't The Putting Them On That's The Problem, It's The Taking Them Off.
Crowns
Problem
What Is Magic? There Is The Wizard's Explanation... Wizards Talk About Candles, Circles, Planets, Stars, Bananas, Chants, Runes And The Importance Of Having At Least Four Good Meals Every Day.
Stars
Circles
Magic
The Duke Had A Mind That Ticked Like A Clock And, Like A Clock, It Regularly Went Cuckoo.
Mind
Cuckoos
Dukes
Everything Is A Test.
Tests
If The Government Ever Imposes A Tax On Books - And I Wouldn't Put It Past Them - I'm In Dead Trouble.
Book
Past
Government
Don't Be Smart. Smart Is Only A Polished Version Of Dumb. Try Intelligence. It Will Surely See You Through.
Smart
Dumb
Trying
I [...] Vowed That Rather Than Let Alzheimer's Take Me, I Would Take It. I Would Live My Life As Ever To The Full And Die, ­before The Disease Mounted Its Last ­attack, In My Own Home, In A Chair On The Lawn, With A Brandy In My Hand To Wash Down Whatever Modern ­version Of The "brompton Cocktail" Some ­helpful Medic Could Supply. And With ­thomas Tallis On My Ipod, I Would Shake Hands With Death.
Life
Home
Ipods
Just Because Someone's A Member Of An Ethnic Minority Doesn't Mean They're Not A Nasty Small-minded Little Jerk [...]
Mean
Minorities
Littles
A Thaum Is The Basic Unit Of Magical Strength. It Has Been Universally Established As The Amount Of Magic Needed To Create One Small White Pigeon Or Three Normal-sized Billiard Balls.
White
Magic
Three
Knowing That You Are Going To Die Is, I Suspect, The Beginning Of Wisdom.
Knowing
Suspects
Dies
Granny Was An Old-fashioned Witch. She Didn’t Do Good For People, She Did Right By Them.
People
Witch
Granny
As Far As I'm Concerned, I'm A Writer Who's Writing Books, And Therefore, I Don't Want To Die. You'd Miss The End Of The Book, Wouldn't You? You Can't Die With An Unfinished Book.
Book
Writing
Missing
Given Enough Coffee I Could Rule The World
Coffee
World
Enough
You Can't Remember The Plot Of The Dr Who Movie Because It Didn't Have One, Just A Lot Of Plot Holes Strung Together. It Did Have A Lot Of Flashing Lights, Though.
Light
Together
Drs
The Truth May Be Out There, But Lies Are Inside Your Head.
Fake People
Lying
Humor
I Would Advise Budding Writers Some Other Kind Of Job, Unless They Think They're Very, Very Lucky.
Jobs
Thinking
Lucky
I Am Certain No One Sets Out To Be Cruel, But Our Treatment Of The Elderly Ill Seems To Have No Philosophy To It. As A Society, We Should Establish Whether We Have A Policy Of Life At Any Cost.
Philosophy
Elderly
Cost
It Doesn't Matter If Dragons Are Flying Overhead Or Whatever - A Lot Of Victoriana Is Still Cut In The Frame Of Fantasy.
Cutting
Dragons
Flying
Look, That's Why There's Rules, Understand? So That You Think Before You Break 'em.
Thinking
Looks
Ems
You Were The Kind Of Kid Who Couldn't See The Difference Between Throwing Rocks At A Cat And Setting It On Fire.
Cat
Kids
Fire
...the Proliferation Of Luminous Fungi Or Iridescent Crystals In Deep Caves Where The Torchlessly Improvident Hero Needs To See Is One Of The Most Obvious Intrusions Of Narrative Causality Into The Physical Universe.
Hero
Needs
Caves
You Couldn't Say 'i Had Orders.' You Couldn't Say 'it's Not Fair.' No One Was Listening. There Were No Words. You Owned Yourself. [...] Not 'thou Shalt Not'. Say 'i Will Not'.
Atheist
Order
Listening
I'd Like To Walk On The Moon (and Return).
Moon
Return
Walks
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