Consider the situation. There you are, forehead like a set of balconies, worrying about the long-term effects of all this new 'fire' stuff on the environment, you're being chased and eaten by most of the planet's large animals, and suddenly tiny versions of one of the worst of them wanders into the cave and starts to purr.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- A humorous reflection on the irony of humans domesticating cats.
- In plain terms
- Humans worry about big threats but let small cats inside.
- What can you take from it?
- Fear and comfort often contradict each other.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- What comforts do we ignore despite risks?
Another view
Uses hyperbole that simplifies historical survival dynamics.
More from Terry Pratchett
Everyone's heard of Erwin Schrodinger's famous thought experiment. You put a cat in a box with a bottle of poison, which many people would suggest is about as …
Permalink to quote #77 Perhaps, if you knew you were going to die, your senses crammed in as much detail as they could while they still had the chance...
Permalink to quote #79 Next comes the realist phase ('After all, from a purely geometrical point of view a cat is only a tube with a door at the top.').
Permalink to quote #76
Related quotes
Squirrels always eat nuts with two hands, always two hands, 'Raar-ra-ra-yum-yum-yum'. And occasionally they stop and they go [gasps, starts, then pauses and lo…
Eddie IzzardEddie Izzard quote #5 'It was Richard Parker who calmed me down. It is the irony of this story that the one who scared me witless to start with was the very same who brought me peac…
Yann MartellYann Martell quote #20 I was such an ugly kid- when I played in the sandbox, the cat kept covering me up.
Rodney DangerfieldRodney Dangerfield quote #23