Jack Vance

Quotes

1. Revenge is not an ignoble motive, when it works to a productive end.

   p. 28

2. 

   A detached attitude toward the problems of others is not illegal.

   p. 180

3. 

   Who are our basic enemies? This is a secret, unknown even to those basic enemies.

   p. 74

4. 

   The tighter the discipline of an art form, the more subjective the criteria of taste.

   p. 79

5. 

   Conjecture without facts was useless; he must deal with events as they occurred.

   p. 67

6. 

   Destiny could not bring him this far only to deal him failure!

   p. 122

7. 

   Money lost, little lost.

   Honor lost, much lost.

   Pluck lost, all lost.

8. 

   There are also those who, like the author, ensconce themselves on a thunderous crag of omniscience, and with protestations of humility which are either unconvincing or totally absent, assume the obligation of appraisal, commendation, derogation or denunciation of their contemporaries. Still, by and large it is an easier job than digging a ditch.

   p. 59

9. 

   You espouse a very popular doctrine, ethical pragmatism, which always turns out to be the doctrine of self-interest.

   p. 12

10. 

    Deeming the unsubstantiated dogma of a localized religious cult to be an undignified and unsuitable base on which to erect the chronology of galactic man, the members of this convention hereby declare that time shall now be reckoned from the year 2000 A.D. (Old System), which becomes the year 0. The revolution of Earth about Sol remains the standard annual unit.

    p. 73

11. 

    What is an evil man? The man is evil who coerces obedience to his private ends, destroys beauty, produces pain, extinguishes life.

    p. 28

12. 

    Humanity many times has had sad experience of superpowerful police forces...As soon as (the police) slip out from under the firm thumb of a suspicious local tribune, they become arbitrary, merciless, a law unto themselves. They think no more of justice, but only of establishing themselves as a privileged and envied elite. They mistake the attitude of natural caution and uncertainty of the civilian population as admiration and respect, and presently they start to swagger back and forth, jingling their weapons in megalomaniac euphoria. People thereupon become not masters, but servants. Such a police force becomes merely an aggregate of uniformed criminals, the more baneful in that their position is unchallenged and sanctioned by law. The police mentality cannot regard a human being in terms other than as an item or object to be processed as expeditiously as possible. Public convenience or dignity means nothing; police prerogatives assume the status of divine law. Submissiveness is demanded. If a police officer kills a civilian, it is a regrettable circumstance: the officer was possibly overzealous. If a civilian kills a police officer all hell breaks loose. The police foam at the mouth. All other business comes to a standstill until the perpetrator of this most dastardly act is found out. Inevitably, when apprehended, he is beaten or otherwise tortured for his intolerable presumption. The police complain that they cannot function efficiently, that criminals escape them. Better a hundred unchecked criminals than the despotism of one unbridled police force.

    p. 32