Jack Vance

Quotes

1. “Truth” is contained in the preconceptions of him who seeks to define it. Any organization of ideas whatever presupposes a judgment on the world.

   p. 112

2. 

   IF THERE BE HERE LESSON OR MORAL, IT LIES BEYOND THE COMPETENCE OF HIM WHO INSCRIBES THIS RECORD.

3. 

   Control is necessary and even good—so long as I do the controlling.

4. 

   Your thoughts move with the deft precision of worm-tracks in the mud.

   p. 149

5. 

   “Certain folk have suggested bold and unprecedented methods—I might substitute the words ‘brash’ and ‘irresponsible’—to alter the conditions of today.”

   p. 30

6. 

   Ghyl laughed also. “If I'm too serious, you're too irresponsible.”

   “Bah,” retorted Floriel. “Is the world responsible? Of course not! The world is random, vagrant, heedless. To be responsible is to be out of phase, to be insane!”

   Ghyl pondered a moment. “This is perhaps the case, in a world left to itself. But society imposes order. Living in a society, it is not insane to be responsible.”

7. 

   Happiness is fugitive; dissatisfaction and boredom are real.

8. 

   “Still, I am restless; in all my life I have achieved nothing.”

   “Work and fatigue are well-known cures for restlessness! And what is achievement after all? Another name for vanity!”

   p. 15

9. 

   Shanne said, “You are quiet; are you sad?”

   “In a way. Do you know why?”

   She put her hand across his mouth. “Never speak of it. What must be, will be. What can never be—can never be.”

   Ghyl turned to look at her, trying to divine every last scintilla of her meaning.

   “But,” she added in a soft voice, “what can be—can be.”

10. 

    Freedom, privileges, options, must constantly be exercised, even at the risk of inconvenience. Otherwise they fall into desuetude and become unfashionable, unorthodox—finally irregulationary.

11. 

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

    p. 64

12. 

    When you demand the nature of my motives, you reveal the style of your thinking to be callow, captious, superficial, craven, uncertain and impudent.

    p. 149