WIST Quotations https://wist.info Wish I'd Said That! Mon, 25 May 2026 19:09:39 +0000 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 https://wist.info/wp/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/little-w-little-box-60x60.jpg ascending – WIST Quotations https://wist.info 32 32 43606282 Pratchett, Terry -- (Frequent Phrase) https://wist.info/pratchett-terry/60775/ https://wist.info/pratchett-terry/60775/#respond Fri, 12 May 2023 22:02:43 +0000 Dave https://wist.info/?p=60775 I’d rather be a rising ape than a falling angel.


Terry Pratchett (1948-2015) English author
(Frequent Phrase)

Pratchett used this phrase and variations on it on numerous occasions. Here are a few:

Humans need fantasy to be human. To be the place where the falling angel meets the rising ape.
-- Hogfather (1996)

Who would not rather be a rising ape than a falling angel.
-- "I create gods all the time," Daily Mail (2008-06-21)

"I'd much rather be a rising ape than a fallen angel"
-- Guardian Book Club Q&A video, 7:19 Guardian (2009-12-19)

See also F. H. Knelman's essay, "Probing Man's True Nature" in 1984 And All That, Sec. 3 (1971):

In the last few years science has been racked by vexing questions concerning the nature of man. The fallen angel has departed and the rising ape appeared.

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