How we cite our quotes: (Story.Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
Dragons!
Ever since he was two years old he had been captivated by the pictures of the fiery beasts in The Octarine Fairy Book. His sister had told him they didn't really exist, and he recalled the bitter disappointment. If the world didn't contain those beautiful creatures, he'd decided, it wasn't half the world it ought to be. (3.12.24-25)
Twoflower's relationship with the awe-inspiring is less one of happy coincidence and more one of need. He needs things to be amazing in the world he lives in. What's the point otherwise?
Quote #8
The usual upshot of this sort of thing is a vast explosion, but, since universes are fairly resilient things, this particular universe had saved itself by instantaneously unraveling its space-time continuum back to a point where the surplus atoms could safely be accommodated […]. This had of course changed history—there had been a few less wars, a few extra dinosaurs and so on—but on the whole the episode passed remarkably quietly. (3.18.3)
We know so little about the universe that we have to wonder what amazing things still await our discovery. In this part of the story, Pratchett reminds us that we don't have to go all the way to the Discworld to find amazing things, though they might be a bit easier to spot there.
Quote #9
Some pirates achieved immortality by great deeds of cruelty or derring-do. Some achieved immortality by amassing great wealth. But the captain had long ago decided that he would, on the whole, prefer to achieve immortality by not dying. (4.3.16)
That would be pretty amazing, wouldn't it? But the Discworld has limits on just how amazing things can get—even Greicha doesn't technically achieved immortality.