Help me locate the origin of a quote please

September 14, 2013 7:06 AM

I vaguely recall a quote along the lines of the following: "What people really want is for tomorrow to be more or less the same as today." I think it might have been from a Terry Pratchett book. Can you help me locate the source and the actual quote?
posted by hoverboards don't work on water to Writing & Language (2 answers total)

Best answer: From Feet of Clay, Lord Vetinari speaks:

"They think they want good government and justice for all, Vimes, yet what is it they really crave, deep in their hearts? Only that things go on as normal and tomorrow is pretty much like today."
posted by Faint of Butt at 7:21 AM on September 14, 2013 [6 favorites]

Pratchett revisits this theme frequently. It's also in The Truth (the book about the founding of the newspaper) where Vetinari delivers a speech that ends: "In short, what people think they want is news, but what they really crave is olds."
posted by the latin mouse at 9:42 AM on September 14, 2013 [1 favorite]