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'I'm sure you didn’t mean to hurt anyone.'Madoc Roswyn laughed a soft forlorn laugh. 'The sad truth is that I didn’t care-which may be worse.'
Jack Vance -
You emphasize morality. But the ultimate basis of morality is survival. What promotes survival is good; what induces mortifaction is bad.
Jack Vance
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Excellent; all is well. The 'everlasting tedium' exactly countervenes the 'immediate onset of death' and I am left only with the 'canker' which, in the person of Firx, already afflicts me. One must use his wits in dealing with maledictions.
Jack Vance -
'I think that I will not answer that question,' he said at last. 'I would create as many false images as there were ears to hear me.''Half as many,' Clissum pointed out delicately.
Jack Vance -
There can be no doubt as to the facts as I have stated them. Orthodoxy derives from this axiomatic foundation, and the two systems are mutually reinforcing: hence each is doubly validated.
Jack Vance -
But, for instance, when I was awfully young, I read all the Oz books. They were an enormous influence on me.
Jack Vance -
I'm only giving orders because I'm more efficient and smarter than you are.
Jack Vance -
An inch of foreknowledge is worth ten miles of after-thought.
Jack Vance
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'Let them scoff as they see fit! I will never compromise what I consider my art, especially for the sake of gain!''For the sake of gain I’d compromise the art of my grandmother,' muttered Zamp under his breath.
Jack Vance -
Gassoon, for all his lore, subscribed to a common fallacy: he assumed that all those whom he encountered appraised him in the same terms as he did himself.
Jack Vance -
'Down we go,' said Paddy. 'Now pray to Saint Anthony if you be a good Catholic-''I'm not,' snapped Fay, 'and if you'll give more mind to the boat and less to religion we’ll gain by it.'
Jack Vance -
Speaking our language, you will understand us-and if you can think as another man thinks, you cannot dislike him.
Jack Vance -
There was a writer in the '20s called Christopher Morley, who I remember a little bit of, who had some influence on me, but I couldn't tell you what it was.
Jack Vance -
I am not called Cugel the Clever for nothing.
Jack Vance
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Since we are not permitted to act, we are obliged to know.
Jack Vance -
When you demand the nature of my motives, you reveal the style of your thinking to be callow, captious, superficial, craven, uncertain and impudent.
Jack Vance -
It was right and proper to exploit the excellences of the moment, but still, when conditions reached an apex, there was nowhere to go but down.
Jack Vance -
If one basic axiom controls the cosmos, it must be this: In a situation of infinity every possible condition occurs, not once, but an infinite number of times.
Jack Vance -
The history of man is a compendium of such evil. We are an evolutionary product, descendants of predators. A few synthetic foods aside, every morsel eaten by man is taken from another living thing. We are intended for murder; we kill to exist!
Jack Vance -
If the past is a house of many chambers, then the present is the most recent coat of paint.
Jack Vance
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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.
Jack Vance -
Die then. This is my cure for sore knees.
Jack Vance -
Dango, Pume, Thwither: down with Visbhume’s breeches; let him hold his backside at the ready.
Jack Vance -
What a strange and unfamiliar world if everyone were treated according to his deserts!
Jack Vance