All religions grew from human dread of death, reflected Travec—the brassier the claims for afterlife, the more popular the creed. - Jack Vance

Revenge is not an ignoble motive, when it works to a productive end.

Sacerdotal, religious or priest-dominated societies are like organisms with a cancer.

“There is war between us that perhaps you cannot completely understand—a long-range combat of our—” she sought for a word to express a complex Lekthwan idea “— moral vitality. In the end we will win. Meanwhile many people suffer.” She shrugged. “The universe is not a paradise.”