Jack Vance - The Dying Earth (1950)

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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
My clever baton holds your unnatural sorcery in abeyance.

Jack Vance
The creature displayed the qualities reminiscent of both coelenterate and echinoderm. A terrene nudibranch? A mollusc deprived of its shell? More importantly, was the creature edible?

Jack Vance
And, stretching in languid warmth, she contrived to twist her body into first one luxurious position, then another.

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
Mischief moves somewhere near and I must blast it with my magic!

Jack Vance
There can be no doubt as to the facts as I have stated them. Orthodoxy derives from this axiomatic foundation, and the two systems are mutually reinforcing: hence each is doubly validated.

Jack Vance
I categorically declare first my absolute innocence, second my lack of criminal intent, and third my effusive apologies.

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
Cease the bickering! I am indulging the exotic whims of a beautiful princess and must not be distracted.

Jack Vance
I am more inclined to punish Hurtiancz for his crassness, said Ildefonse. But now he simulates a swinish stupidity to escape my anger. Absolute falsity! roared Hurtiancz. I simulate nothing! Ildefonse shrugged. For all his deficiencies as polemicist and magician, Hurtiancz at least is candid.

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