Jack Vance - Cugel's Saga (1983)

12 Sourced Quotes

View all Jack Vance Quotes
"I distrusted him from the start! Still, who could imagine such protean depravity?"
Bunderwal, the supercargo, concurred. "Cugel, while plausible, nonetheless is a bit of a scoundrel."

Jack Vance
An inch of foreknowledge is worth ten miles of after-thought.

Jack Vance
I was trained in the old tradition! We found our strength in the basic verities, to which you, as a patrician, must surely subscribe. Am I right in this?
Absolutely, and in all respects! declared Cugel. Recognizing, of course, that these fundamental verities vary from region to region, and even from person to person.

Jack Vance
It is useless, after all, to complain against inexorable reality.

Jack Vance
"The folk are peculiar in many ways," said Erwig. "They preen themselves upon the gentility of their habits, yet they refuse to whitewash their hair, and they are slack in their religious observances. For instance, they make obeisance to Divine Wiulio with the right hand, not on the buttock, but on the abdomen, which we here consider a slipshod practice. What are your own views?"
"The rite should be conducted as you describe," said Cugel. "No other method carries weight."
Erwig refilled Cugel's glass. "I consider this an important endorsement of our views!"

Jack Vance
I think that I will not answer that question, he said at last. I would create as many false images as there were ears to hear me.
Half as many, Clissum pointed out delicately.

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
It was right and proper to exploit the excellences of the moment, but still, when conditions reached an apex, there was nowhere to go but down.

Jack Vance
He indicated the pair of grotesques. "For instance, I have seldom seen objects so studiously repulsive as this pair of bibelots. Skillfully done, agreed! Notice the detail in these horrid little ears! The snouts, the fangs: the malignance is almost real! Still, they are undeniably the work of a diseased imagination."
The objects reared erect. One of them spoke in a rasping voice: "No doubt Cugel has good reason for his unkind words; still, neither Gark nor I can take them lightly."

Jack Vance
Is this the conduct of a 'sly and unpredictable villain'?
Decidedly so, if the villain, for the purposes of his joke, thinks to simulate the altruist.
Then how will you know villain from altruist?
Cugel shrugged. It is not an important distinction.

Jack Vance
I challenge Destiny, yes, but I do not leap off cliffs.

Jack Vance
"At Gundar we conceive 'innocence' as a positive quality, not merely an insipid absence of guilt," stated the Nolde. "We are not the fools that certain untidy ruffians might suppose."

Jack Vance