Jack Vance - Language Quotes

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

Jack Vance

"What are your fees?" inquired Guyal cautiously.
"I respond to three questions," stated the augur. "For twenty terces I phrase the answer in clear and actionable language; for ten I use the language of cant, which occasionally admits of ambiguity; for five, I speak a parable which you must interpret as you will; and for one terce, I babble in an unknown tongue."

Jack Vance

Music is like a language: you cannot understand it unless you learn it, or more accurately, are born into it.

Jack Vance

Kergan Banbeck threw up his hands, turned once more to the sacerdote. How can I halt his nonsense? How can I make him see reason?
The sacerdote reflected. He speaks not nonsense, but rather a language you fail to understand. You can make him understand your language by erasing all knowledge and training from his mind, and replacing it with patterns of your own.

Jack Vance