Jack Vance Quotes
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There are no absolute certainties in this universe. A man must try to whip order into a yelping pack of probabilities, and uniform success is impossible.
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I do read books. I suppose it's more or less the same thing, but at least I'm alone and I'm an individual. I can stop anytime I want, which I frequently do.
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'It sees that you are wrong, that you are guided by faith indeed.'The Demie fell silent. His face seemed to stiffen.'Are these not facts?' asked Joaz. 'How do you reconcile them with your faith?The Demie said mildly, 'Facts can never be reconciled with faith.'
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I just wrote what I felt like writing since they seemed to sell.
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Ah! Five hundred years I have toiled to entice this creature, despairing, doubting, brooding by night, yet never abandoning hope that my calculations were accurate and my great talisman cogent. Then, when finally it appears, you fall upon it for no other reason than to sate your repulsive gluttony!
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A reader is not supposed to be aware that someone's written the story. He's supposed to be completely immersed, submerged in the environment.
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A notable scheme has occurred to me.
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It seems to limit you; when you're working in an office, you're a creature in a small cell under somebody's supervision and surveillance.
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Now was the present, now was the time containing that sweet union of carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, spirit, will and imagination named Nancy.
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'All is mutability, and thus your three hundred terces has fluctuated to three.'
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What is peace? Balance three iron skewers tip to tip, one upon the other; at the summit, emplace and egg, so that it too poises static in mid-air, and there you have the condition of peace in this world of men.
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I must cite an intrinsic condition of the universe. We set forth in any direction which seems convenient; each leads to the same place: the end of the universe.
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You emphasize morality. But the ultimate basis of morality is survival. What promotes survival is good; what induces mortifaction is bad.
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The person who, let us say, expects generosity from a bank, efficient flexibility from a government agency, open-mindedness from a religious institution will be disappointed. In each purview the notions represent immorality. The poor fool might as quickly discover love among the mantises.
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Enough of this intolerable inanity! I propose that such loquacity passes beyond the scope of the nuisance and over the verge of turpitude.
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'I distrusted him from the start! Still, who could imagine such protean depravity?' Bunderwal, the supercargo, concurred. 'Cugel, while plausible, nonetheless is a bit of a scoundrel.'
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He was neither lazy nor incompetent; he merely had occupational claustrophobia.
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'Now it seems that Roger has once more taken up with Miss Roswyn. I can’t say that I approve, but he has not troubled to ask my advice.' She heaved a sigh. 'But I am sure that the world will never go precisely to my liking.''Does it for anyone?' asked Bernard Bickel with good-natured cynicism.'Probably not, and I must reconcile myself to the fact.'
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Claghorn had long insisted that no human condition endured forever, with the corollary that the more complicated such a condition, the greater its susceptibility to change.
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The creature displayed the qualities reminiscent of both coelenterate and echinoderm. A terrene nudibranch? A mollusc deprived of its shell? More importantly, was the creature edible?
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'Tell me, then! What is so important?''Your life! I could not bear that you should lose it!''I feel much the same. Say on.'
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I worked for half a cent a word. I'm not a fast writer to begin with, so for the first few years I had do other things.
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In the end, death came uniformly to all, and all extracted as much satisfaction from their dying as this essentially graceless process could afford.
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The merchant voiced an inarticulate protest. Glystra glared at him, 'Do you think I trust you?''Trust?' said the merchant with a puzzled expression. 'Trust? What word is that?' And he tested it several times more.