Thought For the Day

In just about every book of Terry Pratchett's I find a short passage that I have to copy out and ponder. (Or ponder and copy out.) His latest, I Shall Wear Midnight (Harper), is no exception. On page 230, the young witch Tiffany Aching has been sent to the dungeon. Accompanied by Brian, the captain of the guard, she reflects:

Should I blame him for what he's been ordered to do? she wondered. After all, you can't blame the hammer for what the carpenter does with it. But Brian has got a brain, and the hammer hasn't. Maybe he should try to use it.

With the hysterical jingoism of some of my Facebook friends echoing in my virtual ears, I couldn't agree more.