Jack Vance Quotes

“Ridiculous situation,” he told himself in half-humorous self-contempt. “Six months ago I could think of nothing but travel to strange planets; now all I want is to go home to Earth.”

King Aillas talks softly and with great politeness; he has the uncomfortable skill of calling one a false-hearted blackguard, a liar, a cheat and a villain, but making it seem a fulsome compliment.

The vixen knew no other world than that in her own brain, had no conception that wills could exist in opposition to hers. Amusing now—but what a devil when she grew older!

I see that you will make a competent inspector after all. You have a natural bent for subterfuge and deceit.

Often their grievances were real; often they complained from sheer petulance.

“Intelligence” demands the most strict of definitions, since the word is easily and often abused. Intelligence rates the quality of Gaean man’s competence at altering environment to suit his convenience, or, more generally, the solution of problems. The corollaries to the idea are several. Among them: In the absence of problems, intelligence cannot be measured. A creature with a large, complicated brain is not necessarily intelligent. Raw abstract intelligence is a meaningless concept.

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!

“Why not cancel the affair? There’ll be opportunities in the future.”
“But I’m not confident of the future! It’s a spinning top which can totter in any direction!”

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.”

They call me a renegade.
The epithet is inaccurate and undeserved. I cannot be faithless to a cause which I never have endorsed. Indeed, I am absolutely faithful to the only cause I espouse, which is my own welfare. I take pride in this unswerving loyalty!

I suppose if you isolate yourself to such an extent, you more or less must expect a series of emergencies.

Guyal reined his horse and reflected that flowers were rarely cherished by persons of hostile disposition.

The ancient tale, thought Burke: barbarism triumphant over civilization.

“Our ancient creed is correct. Rather than submitting to change we must divert the influences which conduce in such a direction.”
Ramus Imph listened with patient good humor. “The remarks of the sagacious Servant are persuasive, even though they fail to correspond with reality.”

“What’s the trouble? Given up?”
“What is there to give up?”
“Confidence.”
She said in a soft voice, “We’re slaves; slaves have no need for confidence.”
“I’m not a slave until I feel like a slave.”