“And thereby hangs a tale,” as the monkey said while describing the cat’s rear-quarters. - Jack Vance

Adventure is just another name for having the daylights scared out of you and living to tell about it.

Here was the milieu he loved: conversation! Supple sentences, with first and second meanings and overtones beyond, outrageous challenges with cleverly planned slip-points, rebuttals of elegant brevity; deceptions and guiles, patient explanations of the obvious, fleeting allusions to the unthinkable. As a preliminary, the conversationalist must gauge the mood, the intelligence, and the verbal facility of the company.

I give dignity second place to expedience.