Jack Vance Quotes
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'Let him talk as he will!' scoffed Zamp. 'His motives are not at all obscure.'
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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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And, stretching in languid warmth, she contrived to twist her body into first one luxurious position, then another.
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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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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.
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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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'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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Happiness is fugitive; dissatisfaction and boredom are real.
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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.'
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'I was trained in the old tradition! We found our strength in the basic verities, to which you, as a patrician, must surely subscribe. Am I right in this?''Absolutely, and in all respects!' declared Cugel. 'Recognizing, of course, that these fundamental verities vary from region to region, and even from person to person.'
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'I learned a great deal,' said Beran. 'And then I lost all heart for further learning.'Palafox’s eyes glinted. 'Education is not achieved through the heart-it is a systematization of the mental processes.''But I am something other than a mental process,' said Beran. 'I am a man. I must reckon with the whole of myself.'
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'You’re sure you want to look into these cognates? You might see things you wouldn’t like.''So long as I know the truth, I don’t care whether I like it or not.'
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Aillas replied that while King Audry cited several points of technical interest, and used the resources of abstract logic in an adroit manner, he had actually made no connection with reality.
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Mischief moves somewhere near and I must blast it with my magic!
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I'm only giving orders because I'm more efficient and smarter than you are.
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I suspect that the word (art) was invented by second-rate intelligences to describe the incomprehensible activities of their betters.
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Dismount and kneel before me, that I may strike off your head with fullest ease. You shall die in this tragic golden light of sunset.
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He said that humanity in the main was crass, stupid, boorish and vulgar, and that I could learn at least this much from you.
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'When one deals with the Murthe, the unthinkable becomes the ordinary, and Zanzel's repute carries no more weight than last year's mouse-dropping - if that much.'
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Dango, Pume, Thwither: down with Visbhume’s breeches; let him hold his backside at the ready.
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The purportedly free was seldom as represented.
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I still feel that we should act with restraint. It’s much easier not to do than to undo.
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'You drink only sparingly. Is the beer too thin?''No at all. I merely wish to keep my wits about me. It would not do if both of us became addled, and later woke up in doubt as to who was who.'
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I challenge Destiny, yes, but I do not leap off cliffs.