Jack Vance Quotes

154 Sourced Quotes

Nothing is more conspicuous than a farting princess.

Jack Vance
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!

Jack Vance
The mind was a marvellous instrument, thought Shimrod; when left to wander untended, it often arrived at curious destinations.

Jack Vance
Down we go, said Paddy. Now pray to Saint Anthony if you be a good Catholic—
I'm not, snapped Fay, and if you'll give more mind to the boat and less to religion we'll gain by it.

Jack Vance
Aillas replied that while King Audry cited several points of technical interest, and used the resources of abstract logic in an adroit manner, he had actually made no connection with reality.

Jack Vance
Happiness is fugitive; dissatisfaction and boredom are real.

Jack Vance
Claghorn had long insisted that no human condition endured forever, with the corollary that the more complicated such a condition, the greater its susceptibility to change.

Jack Vance
Of all questions, why? is the least pertinent. It begs the question; it assumes the larger part of its own response; to wit, that a sensible response exists.

Jack Vance
This is no science, this is art, where equations fall away to elements like resolving chords, and where always prevails a symmetry either explicit or multiplex, but always of a crystalline serenity.

Jack Vance
The person who, let us say, expects generosity from a bank, efficient flexibility from a government agency, open-mindedness from a religious institution will be disappointed. In each purview the notions represent immorality. The poor fool might as quickly discover love among the mantises.

Jack Vance
It sees that you are wrong, that you are guided by faith indeed.
The Demie fell silent. His face seemed to stiffen.
Are these not facts? asked Joaz. How do you reconcile them with your faith?
The Demie said mildly, Facts can never be reconciled with faith.

Jack Vance
Why not alter the habits of a lifetime and speak with candour? asked Shimrod. Truth, after all, need not be only the tactic of last resort.

Jack Vance
I'm only giving orders because I'm more efficient and smarter than you are.

Jack Vance
Law cannot reach where enforcement will not follow. —Popular aphorism.

Jack Vance
A man is like a rope: both break at a definite strain.... The solution is not splicing the rope; it's lessening the tension.

Jack Vance
Your character, Apollon Zamp, is marred by a certain paltriness of spirit, a diffused universal distrust which I truly deplore.

Jack Vance
"Here you see the pattern from which my great work is derived. It expresses the symbolic significance of NULLITY to which TOTALITY must necessarily attach itself, by Kratinjae's Second Law of Cryptorrhoid Affinities, with which you are possibly familiar." <br.> "Not in every aspect," said Cugel.

Jack Vance
In the end, death came uniformly to all, and all extracted as much satisfaction from their dying as this essentially graceless process could afford.

Jack Vance
You have frightened and daunted me. I will stop stealing at once.

Jack Vance
All is mutability, and thus your three hundred terces has fluctuated to three.

Jack Vance
You emphasize morality. But the ultimate basis of morality is survival. What promotes survival is good; what induces mortifaction is bad.

Jack Vance
Your doctrines are remarkable! As if I existed only to fulfill your cravings! Then, since I do not care to do so, the cosmos must be considered insane.

Jack Vance
I gathered that the old fellow suffers from some advanced form of senile dementia, and so perhaps his analysis is not totally accurate.

Jack Vance
It had been suggested to her that the flaw lay not in the universe but in herself.

Jack Vance
The less a writer discusses his work—and himself—the better. The master chef slaughters no chickens in the dining room; the doctor writes prescriptions in Latin; the magician hides his hinges, mirrors, and trapdoors with the utmost care.

Jack Vance
He was neither lazy nor incompetent; he merely had occupational claustrophobia.

Jack Vance
"Very well," said Cugel. "I will ride with you to Taun Tassel, but you must accept these three terces in full, exact, final, comprehensive and complete compensation for the ride and every other aspect, adjunct, by-product and consequence, either direct or indirect, of the said ride, renouncing every other claim, now, and forever, including all times of the past and future, without exception, and absolving me, in part and in whole, from any and all further obligation."
Iucounu held up small balled fists and gritted his teeth toward the sky. "I repudiate your entire paltry philosophy! I find zest in giving!"

Jack Vance
Poor Pymfyd! Your world is built of fear and dread! As for me, I have no time for such emotions.
Pymfyd spoke in an even voice. You are a royal princess and I may not call you a witless little fool, even should the thought cross my mind.
Madouc turned him a sad blue-eyed glance. So that, after all, is your concept of me.
I will say only this: persons who fear nothing are soon dead.

Jack Vance
Aillas groaned. Destiny could never be so unkind.
Suldrun said in a soft voice: Destiny doesn't really care.

Jack Vance
Shanne said, You are quiet; are you sad?
In a way. Do you know why?
She put her hand across his mouth. Never speak of it. What must be, will be. What can never be—can never be.
Ghyl turned to look at her, trying to divine every last scintilla of her meaning.
But, she added in a soft voice, what can be—can be.

Jack Vance