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

Damned meddlers. It’s hard to know when their curiosity is official and when it’s just curiosity.

“Don’t you think it’s a bit—well, intense? Are people really interested in these matters?”
“If not they should be.”
“Easily said, but it’s no way to run a magazine. People don’t want to really understand anything; they want to think they have learned without the necessity of application.”

Human interactions, stimulated as they are by disequilibrium, never achieve balance. In even the most favorable transaction, one party—whether he realizes it or not—must always come out the worse.