Jack Vance Quotes

If religions are diseases of the human psyche, as the philosopher Grintholde asserts, then religious wars must be reckoned the resultant sores and cankers infecting the aggregate corpus of the human race. Of all wars, these are the most detestable, since they are waged for no tangible gain, but only to impose a set of arbitrary credos upon another's mind.

Freedom, privileges, options, must constantly be exercised, even at the risk of inconvenience.

Good music always defeats bad luck

While we are alive we should sit among colored lights and taste good wines, and discuss our adventures in far places; when we are dead, the opportunity is past.

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.

What is an evil man? The man is evil who coerces obedience to his private ends, destroys beauty, produces pain, extinguishes life.

Nothing is more conspicuous than a farting princess.

A barbarian is not aware that he is a barbarian.

Count me not your friend but the enemy of your enemies.

A man is like a rope: both break at a definite strain....The solution is not splicing the rope; it's lessening the tension.

I categorically declare first my absolute innocence, second my lack of criminal intent, and third my effusive apologies.

An inch of foreknowledge is worth ten miles of after-thought.

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.

I understand the gist of your speculation,' said Rhialto. 'It is most likely nuncupatory.

Happiness is fugitive; dissatisfaction and boredom are real.

Beauty compelled admiration and erotic yearning; such was its organic function. But never by itself could it command love.

What are your fees?" inquired Guyal cautiously. "I respond to three questions," stated the augur. "For twenty terces I phrase the answer in clear and actionable language; for ten I use the language of cant, which occasionally admits of ambiguity; for five, I speak a parable which you must interpret as you will; and for one terce, I babble in an unknown tongue.

Since we are not permitted to act, we are obliged to know.

Somebody else's ignorance is bliss.

Law cannot reach where enforcement will not follow. —Popular aphorism.

I become drunk as circumstances dictate.

Conversation! Supple sentences, with first and second meanings and overtones beyond, outrageous challenges with cleverly planned slip-points, rebuttals of elegant brevity; deceptions and guiles, patient explanations of the obvious, fleeting allusions to the unthinkable. As a preliminary, the conversationalist must gauge the mood, the intelligence and the verbal facility of the company. To this end, a few words of pedantic exposition often prove invaluable.

I suspect that the word (art) was invented by second-rate intelligences to describe the incomprehensible activities of their betters.

Beauty is a luster which love bestows to guile the eye. Therefore it may be said that only when the brain is without love will the eye look and see no beauty.

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.