No great rush

From Discworld & Terry Pratchett Wiki
Revision as of 10:39, 3 November 2010 by 217.155.192.180 (talk)
(diff) ← Older revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)
Jump to navigation Jump to search

"No great rush..." is a favourite saying of Vetinari's, when he is especially keen for a subordinate to get a move on and take the necessary corrective action.

He uses the phrase a lot to Moist von Lipwig, who, being a man skilled in the spin and curve that can be put on words, (in much the same way that Steve Davis is a man skilled in the spin and curve that can be put on billiard balls,) correctly interprets it as:

"Although this situation has persisted in its current form for quite some time now, and, will carry on doing so, unless given the correct sort of applied change, I would be exceedingly grateful if you would start to do something about it now. Thank you so much."

The phrase is put into its absolutely correct context in The Last Hero, where there is an exchange between Vetinari and Ponder Stibbons concerning the relative value of an arts versus a science degree. With a crisis having developed aboard the Kite which requires instant decision-making by Mission Control, Vetinari delivers the killer comeback to Stibbons:

"You have one minute, Mr Stibbons. No great rush"

It's amazing how quickly things get done and how much bureaucratic inertia can be overcome when Vetinari has said there's no great rush about doing something...