Jack Vance Quotes
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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.
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The less a writer discusses his work-and himself-the better. The master chef slaughters no chickens in the dining room; the doctor writes prescriptions in Latin; the magician hides his hinges, mirrors, and trapdoors with the utmost care.
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Your doctrines are remarkable! As if I existed only to fulfill your cravings! Then, since I do not care to do so, the cosmos must be considered insane.
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Human interactions, stimulated as they are by disequilibrium, never achieve balance. In even the most favorable transaction, one party-whether he realizes it or not-must always come out the worse.
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Until work has reached its previous stage nympharium privileges are denied to all.
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Sir, my life, drab and insipid though it may seem to others, is the only life given me to live.
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Kings, like children, tend to be opportunistic. Generosity only spoils them. They equate affability with weakness and hasten to exploit it.
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'Why not alter the habits of a lifetime and speak with candour?' asked Shimrod. 'Truth, after all, need not be only the tactic of last resort.'
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Cease the bickering! I am indulging the exotic whims of a beautiful princess and must not be distracted.
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Yes, I realize that I see but a semblance, but so do you, and who is to say which is real?
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The colour, noise and festivity failed to elevate Carfilhiot’s mood; in fact-so he told himself-never had he witnessed so much pointless nonsense.
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An inch of foreknowledge is worth ten miles of after-thought.
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Mischief moves somewhere near and I must blast it with my magic!
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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.
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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.
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I am not called Cugel the Clever for nothing.
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We’ll rack our brains and either solve your problem or come up come up with new and better ones.
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I categorically declare first my absolute innocence, second my lack of criminal intent, and third my effusive apologies.
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'Sir Tristano spoke: 'Stop! You are taking the great green pearl!''Naturally!' said the voice from a point close behind. 'That is the whole point of robbery: to acquire the victim’s valuables!'
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Aillas groaned. 'Destiny could never be so unkind.'Suldrun said in a soft voice: 'Destiny doesn’t really care.'
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'Truth' is contained in the preconceptions of him who seeks to define it. Any organization of ideas whatever presupposes a judgment on the world.
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Die then. This is my cure for sore knees.
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I have transcended that phase in my intellectual growth where I discover humour in simple freakishness. What exists is real; therefore it is tragic, since wherever lives must die. Only fantasy, the vapours rising from sheer nonsense, can now excite my laughter.
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'I am more inclined to punish Hurtiancz for his crassness,' said Ildefonse. 'But now he simulates a swinish stupidity to escape my anger.''Absolute falsity!' roared Hurtiancz. 'I simulate nothing!'Ildefonse shrugged. 'For all his deficiencies as polemicist and magician, Hurtiancz at least is candid.'