# Quote — Jack Vance, Madouc

> “I watch the sea and the sky; sometimes I wade in the surf and build roads in the sand. At night I study the stars.”
>
> “You have no friends?”
>
> “No.”
>
> “And what of the future?”
>
> “The future stops at ‘now’.”
>
> “As to that, I am not so sure,” said Shimrod. “It is at best a half-truth.”
>
> “What of that? Half a truth is better than none: do you not agree?”
>
> “Not altogether,” said Shimrod. “I am a practical man, I try to control the shape of the ‘nows’ which lie in the offing, instead of submitting to them as they occur.”
>
> Melancthe gave an uninterested shrug. “You are free to do as you like.” Leaning back in the divan, she looked out across the sea.
>
> Shimrod finally spoke. “Well then: are you ‘good’ or ‘bad’?”
>
> “I don’t know.”
>
> Shimrod became vexed. “Talking with you is like visiting an empty house.”
>
> Melancthe considered a moment before responding. “Perhaps,” she said, “you are visiting the wrong house. Or perhaps you are the wrong visitor.”

- Author: [Jack Vance](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jack-vance.md)
- Book: [Madouc](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jack-vance/madouc.md)
- Page: 783
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jack_Vance#Madouc_(1989)) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/jack-vance/madouc/i-watch-the

## More from this book

> I may be called upon to address the company. No one will listen, of course, which is just as well, since I have nothing to say.

p. 954 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jack-vance/madouc/i-may-be-called.md)

> He adjudicated the case in a manner I still find perplexing, but which must have been equitable, since it pleased no one.

p. 967 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jack-vance/madouc/he-adjudicated-the.md)

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

p. 968 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jack-vance/madouc/the-mind-was.md)