Jack Vance Quotes

“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.”

My great pleasure is creation—of this I never tire. Some of my guests have complained of a gentle melancholy which hangs in the air; I agree that the mood exists. The explanation, I believe, arises from the fugacity of beauty, the tragic pavanne to which all of us step.

Jaro, my dear, there is no mystery about violence. It is the reflexive act of brutes, boors and moral defectives.

Reith for a space could find no words. At last he stuttered, “Have you no concern for evil deeds?”
“‘Evil’?” Baojian laughed sadly. “On Tschai the word has no meaning. Events exist—or they do not exist. If a person adheres to some other system of conduct he himself will swiftly cease to exist.”

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.

“And this is Uther Madduc’s ‘wonderful joke’?”
“So I believe.”
“But what’s funny?”
“The magnificent ability of the human race to delude itself.”

The life we’ve been leading couldn’t last forever. It’s a wonder it lasted as long as it did.

"The folk are peculiar in many ways," said Erwig. "They preen themselves upon the gentility of their habits, yet they refuse to whitewash their hair, and they are slack in their religious observances. For instance, they make obeisance to Divine Wiulio with the right hand, not on the buttock, but on the abdomen, which we here consider a slipshod practice. What are your own views?"
"The rite should be conducted as you describe," said Cugel. "No other method carries weight."
Erwig refilled Cugel's glass. "I consider this an important endorsement of our views!"

“The idea has the virtue of simplicity,” said Nai the Hever gravely. “I confess that it had not occurred to me. I am always reluctant to pull on strings until I learn where they lead and to what they are attached.”

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!

My wealth is my shelf of books!

“My father says I have too much curiosity for my own good.”
Captain Henshaw chuckled. “He’s wrong there; too much curiosity never hurt anyone. When a boy has too little, that’s the time to start worrying.”

Die then. This is my cure for sore knees.

If there were no such creatures as minstrel-maidens, it would be necessary to invent them.

Perhaps you mistake assurance for insolence…Agreed, the qualities sometimes converge.