“I perceive your ideological bias.” “It is not bias to favor the tried and true ways of the past; it is ordinary common sense.” - Jack Vance

Speaking our language, you will understand us—and if you can think as another man thinks, you cannot dislike him.

“I’m not sure. There’s not much I can do. Unless—” he hesitated.
“Unless what?”
“Unless I make an underwater survey myself.”
Damon was appalled. “What do you hope to gain by that?”
Fletcher smiled. “If I knew, I wouldn’t need to go.”

The Gnashters circulated through the room, collecting coins. Reith grudgingly paid a tax of nine sequins for himself, Traz and the Flower of Cath. None of the folk present seemed to find the exaction unreasonable. So pervasive was the lack of social discipline, Reith decided, that exploitation of advantage was taken for granted.