The Reason That Clichs Become Clichs Is That They Are The Hammers And Screwdrivers In The Toolbox Of

The reason that clichés become clichés is that they are the hammers and screwdrivers in the toolbox of communication.

Guards! Guards! Terry Pratchett

It was just him and me. He fought with honor. If it weren't for his honor, he and the others would have beaten me together. They might have killed me, then. His sense of honor saved my life. I didn't fight with honor... I fought to win.

Ender's Game; Orson Scott Card

Mook: This is police brutality! Detritus: No, dis is just police shouting! If you wanna try brutality it ok by me!

Feet of Clay; Terry Pratchett

We do not murder. We do not execute. We do not massacre. We never, you may be very certain, we never torture. We have no truck with crimes of passion or hatred or pointless gain. We do not do it for a delight in inhumation, or to feed some secret inner need, or for petty advantage or for some cause or belief; I tell you, gentlemen, that all these reasons are in the highest degree suspect. Look into the face of a man who will kill you for a belief and your nostrils will snuff up the scent of abomination. Hear a speech declaring a holy war and, I assure you, your ears should catch the click of evil's scales and the dragging of its monstrous tail over the purity of the language. No, we do it for the money. And, because we above all must know the value of a human life, we do it for a great deal of money. There can be few cleaner motives, so shorn of all pretence.

Pyramids; Terry Pratchett

Then yield thee, coward And live to be the show and gaze o' the time: We'll have thee, as our rarer monsters are, Painted on a pole, and underwrit, 'Here may you see the tyrant.'

Macduff, Macbeth; William Shakespeare

If we had a keen vision and feeling of all ordinary human life, other would be like hearing the grass grow and the squirrel's heart bear, and we should die of that roar which lies on the other side of silence.

Middlemarch; George Eliot