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Jack Vance Quotes

John Holbrook "Jack" Vance was an American mystery, fantasy, and science fiction writer. Though most of his work has been published under the name Jack Vance, he also wrote 9 mystery novels using his full name John Holbrook Vance, three under the pseudonym Ellery Queen, and one each using the pseudonyms Alan Wade, Peter Held, John van See, and Jay Kavanse. Some editions of his published works give his year of birth as 1920.

Vance won the World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement in 1984 and he was a Guest of Honor at the 1992 World Science Fiction Convention in Orlando, Florida. The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America made him its 14th Grand Master in 1997 and the Science Fiction Hall of Fame inducted him in 2001, its sixth class of two deceased and two living writers.

Among his awards for particular works were: Hugo Awards, in 1963 for The Dragon Masters, in 1967 for The Last Castle, and in 2010 for his memoir This is Me, Jack Vance!; a Nebula Award in 1966, also for The Last Castle; the Jupiter Award in 1975; the World Fantasy Award in 1990 for Lyonesse: Madouc. He also won an Edgar for the best first mystery novel in 1961 for The Man in the Cage.

A 2009 profile in The New York Times Magazine described Vance as "one of American literature's most distinctive and undervalued voices". He died at his home in Oakland, California on May 26, 2013, aged 96.

✵ 28. August 1916 – 26. May 2013   •   Other names جک ونس, ჯეკ ვენსი
Jack Vance photo

Works
Lyonesse Trilogy
Jack Vance
Dying Earth
Jack Vance
Demon Princes
Demon Princes
Jack Vance
Jack Vance: 213   quotes 3   likes

Famous Jack Vance Quotes

“Sir, your ideas are incorrect in every possible respect.”

Jack Vance Lyonesse Trilogy

Source: Lyonesse Trilogy (1983-1989), Madouc (1989), Chapter 7, section 5 (p. 848)

““You’re sure you want to look into these cognates? You might see things you wouldn’t like.”
“So long as I know the truth, I don’t care whether I like it or not.””

Jack Vance

Section 6 (p. 186)
Short fiction, Rumfuddle (1973)

“Sir, my life, drab and insipid though it may seem to others, is the only life given me to live.”

Jack Vance Lyonesse Trilogy

Source: Lyonesse Trilogy (1983-1989), The Green Pearl (1985), Chapter 4, section 3 (p. 419)

“While we are alive we should sit among colored lights and taste good wines, and discuss our adventures in far places; when we are dead, the opportunity is past.”

Jack Vance

“Notice this rent in my garment; I am at a loss to explain its presence! I am even more puzzled by the existence of the universe.”

Jack Vance Dying Earth

Source: Dying Earth (1950-1984), The Eyes of the Overworld (1966), Chapter 5, "The Pilgrims"
Source: Tales of the Dying Earth

“Good music always defeats bad luck.”

Jack Vance

Jack Vance Quotes about the world

“Sorry, I’m not at home. I have gone out to my world Fancy, and I cannot be reached. Call back in a week, unless your business is urgent, in which case call back in a month.”

Jack Vance

Section 6 (p. 184)
Short fiction, Rumfuddle (1973)

“What is peace? Balance three iron skewers tip to tip, one upon the other; at the summit, emplace and egg, so that it too poises static in mid-air, and there you have the condition of peace in this world of men.”

Jack Vance Lyonesse Trilogy

Source: Lyonesse Trilogy (1983-1989), Madouc (1989), Chapter 4, section 3 (p. 750)

“Madouc, this is my advice: pick up yonder clod of dirt, and tender it to that pop-eyed little imp, speaking these words: “Zocco, with this token I both imburse and reimburse you, in full fee and total account, now and then, anon and for ever, in this world and all others, and in every other conceivable respect, for each and every service you have performed for me or in my behalf, real or imaginary, to the limits of time, in all directions.””

Jack Vance Lyonesse Trilogy

Source: Lyonesse Trilogy (1983-1989), Madouc (1989), Chapter 3, section 3 (p. 731)

““Now it seems that Roger has once more taken up with Miss Roswyn. I can’t say that I approve, but he has not troubled to ask my advice.” She heaved a sigh. “But I am sure that the world will never go precisely to my liking.”
“Does it for anyone?” asked Bernard Bickel with good-natured cynicism.
“Probably not, and I must reconcile myself to the fact.””

Jack Vance book Space Opera

Source: Space Opera (1965), Chapter 13 (p. 134)

“Poor Pymfyd! Your world is built of fear and dread! As for me, I have no time for such emotions.”
Pymfyd spoke in an even voice. “You are a royal princess and I may not call you a witless little fool, even should the thought cross my mind.”
Madouc turned him a sad blue-eyed glance. “So that, after all, is your concept of me.”

Jack Vance Lyonesse Trilogy

“I will say only this: persons who fear nothing are soon dead.”
Source: Lyonesse Trilogy (1983-1989), Madouc (1989), Chapter 3, section 3 (p. 722)

“What a strange and unfamiliar world if everyone were treated according to his deserts!”

Jack Vance Lyonesse Trilogy

Source: Lyonesse Trilogy (1983-1989), Suldrun's Garden (1983), Chapter 25, section 1 (p. 270)

Jack Vance: Trending quotes

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

Jack Vance Dying Earth

Source: Dying Earth (1950-1984), The Dying Earth (1950), Chapter 1, "Turjan of Miir"

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

Jack Vance Lyonesse Trilogy

Source: Lyonesse Trilogy (1983-1989), Madouc (1989), Chapter 11, section 1 (p. 967)

“When one deals with the Murthe, the unthinkable becomes the ordinary, and Zanzel's repute carries no more weight than last year's mouse-dropping - if that much.”

Jack Vance

"The Murthe", chapter 2
Quotations and text from the Dying Earth novels, Rhialto the Marvellous (1984)

Jack Vance Quotes

“I do not care to listen; obloquy injures my self-esteem and I am skeptical of praise.”

Jack Vance Dying Earth

Source: Dying Earth (1950-1984), The Eyes of the Overworld (1966), Chapter 1, "The Overworld"

“How to know, oh how to know! All is relative ease and facility in orthodoxy, yet how can it be denied that good is in itself undeniable? Absolutes are the most uncertain of all formulations, while the uncertainties are the most real…”

Jack Vance book The Dragon Masters

Section 7
The Dragon Masters (1962)

“The less a writer discusses his work—and himself—the better. The master chef slaughters no chickens in the dining room; the doctor writes prescriptions in Latin; the magician hides his hinges, mirrors, and trapdoors with the utmost care.”

Jack Vance

Afterword to "The Bagful of Dreams" in The Jack Vance Treasury (2007). First appeared in Epoch (1775), ed. Robert Silverberg and Roger Elwood.

“We need no chieftain; such folk eat more than their share.”

Jack Vance Dying Earth

"Fader's Waft", chapter 13
Dying Earth (1950-1984), Rhialto the Marvellous (1984)

“Shimrod said: “Once I thought of you as a child in a woman’s body.”
Melancthe smiled a cool smile. “And now?”
“The child seems to have wandered away.””

Jack Vance Lyonesse Trilogy

Source: Lyonesse Trilogy (1983-1989), The Green Pearl (1985), Chapter 6, section 1 (p. 436)

Smile

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

Jack Vance Lyonesse Trilogy

Source: Lyonesse Trilogy (1983-1989), Madouc (1989), Chapter 11, section 2 (p. 968)

““Let him talk as he will!” scoffed Zamp. “His motives are not at all obscure.””

Jack Vance book Showboat World

Source: Showboat World (1975), Chapter 10 (p. 108)

Motivation

““Sir Tristano spoke: “Stop! You are taking the great green pearl!”
“Naturally!” said the voice from a point close behind. “That is the whole point of robbery: to acquire the victim’s valuables!””

Jack Vance Lyonesse Trilogy

Source: Lyonesse Trilogy (1983-1989), The Green Pearl (1985), Chapter 1, section 4 (p. 375)

Nature

“It is no hardship whatever,” said Aillas. “You have never strained at the deed. Now the shoe is on the other foot, and suddenly you find the idea incredible. Do you not sense a taint of unreality?”

Jack Vance Lyonesse Trilogy

Source: Lyonesse Trilogy (1983-1989), The Green Pearl (1985), Chapter 13, section 3 (p. 571)

Shoe , Idea , Sense

“In measured tones he answered Madouc: “Your condition lacks dignity; you bring ridicule upon us all.”
Madouc gave a stony shrug. “If you do not like what you see, look elsewhere.””

Jack Vance Lyonesse Trilogy

Source: Lyonesse Trilogy (1983-1989), Madouc (1989), Chapter 9, section 4 (p. 928)

“There are no absolute certainties in this universe. A man must try to whip order into a yelping pack of probabilities, and uniform success is impossible.”

Jack Vance book The Languages of Pao

Source: The Languages of Pao (1958), Chapter 13 (p. 133)

Universe , Success

““Let them scoff as they see fit! I will never compromise what I consider my art, especially for the sake of gain!”
“For the sake of gain I’d compromise the art of my grandmother,” muttered Zamp under his breath.”

Jack Vance book Showboat World

Source: Showboat World (1975), Chapter 14 (p. 168)

Art

“It is useless, after all, to complain against inexorable reality.”

Jack Vance Dying Earth

Source: Dying Earth (1950-1984), Cugel's Saga (1983), Chapter 5, section 2, "The Bagful of Dreams"

Reality

“You emphasize morality. But the ultimate basis of morality is survival. What promotes survival is good; what induces mortifaction is bad.”

Jack Vance book The Last Castle

Source: The Last Castle (1966), Chapter 3, section 2

“Guyal reined his horse and reflected that flowers were rarely cherished by persons of hostile disposition.”

Jack Vance Dying Earth

Source: Dying Earth (1950-1984), The Dying Earth (1950), Chapter 6, "Guyal of Sfere"

Hostility , Flowers , Horse , Personality

““You drink only sparingly. Is the beer too thin?”
“No at all. I merely wish to keep my wits about me. It would not do if both of us became addled, and later woke up in doubt as to who was who.””

Jack Vance Lyonesse Trilogy

Source: Lyonesse Trilogy (1983-1989), The Green Pearl (1985), Chapter 6, section 4 (p. 447)

Drink , Beer

“You will understand,” said the Weaponeer, “that a pattern for events exists. It is the function of such as myself to shape events so that they will fit the pattern.” He bent, with a graceful sweep of arm, and seized a small jagged pebble. “Just as I can grind this bit of rock to fit a round aperture.”
Kergan Banbeck reached forward, took the pebble, tossed it high over the tumbled boulders. “That bit of rock you shall never shape to fit a round hole.”
The Weaponeer shook his head in mild deprecation. “There is always more rock.”

Jack Vance book The Dragon Masters

“And there are always more holes,” declared Kergan Banbeck.
Section 2
The Dragon Masters (1962)

Understanding

“You must save yourselves,” Rogol Domedonfors told them. “You have ignored the ancient wisdom, you have been too indolent to learn, you have sought easy complacence from religion, rather than facing manfully to the world.”

Jack Vance Dying Earth

Source: Dying Earth (1950-1984), The Dying Earth (1950), Chapter 5, "Ulan Dhor"

Wisdom , World , Religion , Learning

“In the end, death came uniformly to all, and all extracted as much satisfaction from their dying as this essentially graceless process could afford.”

Jack Vance book The Last Castle

Source: The Last Castle (1966), Chapter 1, section 1

Death

“Aillas replied that while King Audry cited several points of technical interest, and used the resources of abstract logic in an adroit manner, he had actually made no connection with reality.”

Jack Vance Lyonesse Trilogy

Source: Lyonesse Trilogy (1983-1989), The Green Pearl (1985), Chapter 16, section 2 (p. 626)

Reality

“Human interactions, stimulated as they are by disequilibrium, never achieve balance. In even the most favorable transaction, one party—whether he realizes it or not—must always come out the worse.”

Jack Vance Dying Earth

"Morreion" (first published in Flashing Swords #1, March 1973), chapter 4
Dying Earth (1950-1984), Rhialto the Marvellous (1984)

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

Jack Vance Dying Earth

Source: Dying Earth (1950-1984), The Eyes of the Overworld (1966), Chapter 4, "The Sorcerer Pharesm"

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

Jack Vance book Emphyrio

Source: Emphyrio (1969), Chapter 19

““Are you yourself a Christian?”
The young man made a negative sign. “The concepts of religion baffle me.”
“This inscrutability is perhaps not unintentional,” said the ex-priest. “It gives endless employment to dialecticians who otherwise might become public charges or, at very worst, swindlers and tricksters.””

Jack Vance Lyonesse Trilogy

Source: Lyonesse Trilogy (1983-1989), The Green Pearl (1985), Chapter 1, section 4 (p. 367)

Religion

“We are sufficiently at the mercy of machines, Roger; if our music must necessarily be mechanical, then it is time for us to throw in the sponge, and abandon all hope for the future of humanity.”

Jack Vance book Space Opera

Source: Space Opera (1965), Chapter 4 (p. 31)

Hope , Music , Time , Future

“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.””

Jack Vance book Emphyrio

Source: Emphyrio (1969), Chapter 12

Sadness , Way

“Ildefonse said ponderously: "If your analysis is correct, we must undertake to secure the future against this pangynic nightmare."”

Jack Vance Dying Earth

"The Murthe", chapter 2
Dying Earth (1950-1984), Rhialto the Marvellous (1984)

Future

““Dame Fairy of the Silver Eyes: allow me to put you a question, which is this: where should I seek the Holy Grail?”
“Determine its location and go to that spot; that is my wise advice.”
Travante spoke tentatively: “If you could guide me to my lost youth, I would be most grateful.”
Twisk jumped high in the air, pirouetted, settled slowly to the ground. “I am not an index of the world’s worries. I know nothing either of Christian crockery nor truant time! And now: silence!”

Jack Vance Lyonesse Trilogy

Source: Lyonesse Trilogy (1983-1989), Madouc (1989), Chapter 8, section 3 (p. 881)

Youth , World , Question , Silence

“Music is like a language: you cannot understand it unless you learn it, or more accurately, are born into it.”

Jack Vance book Space Opera

Source: Space Opera (1965), Chapter 1 (p. 12)

Music , Understanding , Learning

“Kings, like children, tend to be opportunistic. Generosity only spoils them. They equate affability with weakness and hasten to exploit it.”

Jack Vance Lyonesse Trilogy

Source: Lyonesse Trilogy (1983-1989), Suldrun's Garden (1983), Chapter 12, section 2 (p. 122)

Children

““Tomorrow?”
“Sh.” She put her hand across his lips. “Never say the word!””

Jack Vance book Emphyrio

Source: Emphyrio (1969), Chapter 12

““I learned a great deal,” said Beran. “And then I lost all heart for further learning.”
Palafox’s eyes glinted. “Education is not achieved through the heart—it is a systematization of the mental processes.”
“But I am something other than a mental process,” said Beran. “I am a man. I must reckon with the whole of myself.””

Jack Vance book The Languages of Pao

Source: The Languages of Pao (1958), Chapter 13 (p. 133)

Education , Learning , Heart

“I gathered that the old fellow suffers from some advanced form of senile dementia, and so perhaps his analysis is not totally accurate.”

Jack Vance Lyonesse Trilogy

Source: Lyonesse Trilogy (1983-1989), The Green Pearl (1985), Chapter 5, section 3 (p. 430)

Suffering

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

Jack Vance Dying Earth

Source: Dying Earth (1950-1984), The Eyes of the Overworld (1966), Chapter 1, "The Overworld"

Beauty , Princess

“Enough of this intolerable inanity! I propose that such loquacity passes beyond the scope of the nuisance and over the verge of turpitude.”

Jack Vance Dying Earth

"Morreion", chapter 8
Dying Earth (1950-1984), Rhialto the Marvellous (1984)

“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.”

Jack Vance Lyonesse Trilogy

Source: Lyonesse Trilogy (1983-1989), Madouc (1989), Chapter 10, section 3 (p. 954)

“"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 Dying Earth

Source: Dying Earth (1950-1984), Cugel's Saga (1983), Chapter 2, section 2, "Lausicaa"

Imagination

“Kergan Banbeck threw up his hands, turned once more to the sacerdote. “How can I halt his nonsense? How can I make him see reason?
The sacerdote reflected. “He speaks not nonsense, but rather a language you fail to understand. You can make him understand your language by erasing all knowledge and training from his mind, and replacing it with patterns of your own.””

Jack Vance book The Dragon Masters

Section 2
The Dragon Masters (1962)

Understanding , Knowledge , Training

“I can now report that the mathematics of the multiple focus are a most improbable thicket, and the useful service I enforced upon what I must call an absurd set of contradictions is one of my secrets. I know that thousands of scientists, at home and abroad, are attempting to duplicate my work; they are welcome to the effort. None will succeed. Why do I speak so positively? That is my other secret.”

Jack Vance

Section 3 (p. 169)
Short fiction, Rumfuddle (1973)

Secret , Home , Mathematics , Effort

“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 Dying Earth

Source: Dying Earth (1950-1984), Cugel's Saga (1983), Chapter 2, section 3, "The Ocean of Sighs"

“Gassoon, for all his lore, subscribed to a common fallacy: he assumed that all those whom he encountered appraised him in the same terms as he did himself.”

Jack Vance book Showboat World

Source: Showboat World (1975), Chapter 7 (p. 81)

““Tell me, then! What is so important?”
“Your life! I could not bear that you should lose it!”
“I feel much the same. Say on.””

Jack Vance Lyonesse Trilogy

Source: Lyonesse Trilogy (1983-1989), Madouc (1989), Chapter 10, section 2 (p. 948)

Life , Feeling

“A barbarian is not aware that he is a barbarian.”

Jack Vance book Big Planet

Source: Big Planet (1957), Chapter 3 “Free for All” (p. 31)

“Since we are not permitted to act, we are obliged to know.”

Jack Vance book The Dragon Masters

Section 6
The Dragon Masters (1962)

“The person who, let us say, expects generosity from a bank, efficient flexibility from a government agency, open-mindedness from a religious institution will be disappointed. In each purview the notions represent immorality. The poor fool might as quickly discover love among the mantises.”

Jack Vance book The Book of Dreams

Quotations and text from the Demon Princes novels, The Book of Dreams

Love , Fools , Disappointment , Personality

“If religions are diseases of the human psyche, as the philosopher Grintholde asserts, then religious wars must be reckoned the resultant sores and cankers infecting the aggregate corpus of the human race. Of all wars, these are the most detestable, since they are waged for no tangible gain, but only to impose a set of arbitrary credos upon another’s mind.”

Jack Vance Demon Princes

Source: Demon Princes (1964-1981), The Face (1979), Chapter 3 (pp. 17-18)

War , Disease , Religion

“Down we go,” said Paddy. “Now pray to Saint Anthony if you be a good Catholic—”
“I'm not,” snapped Fay, “and if you'll give more mind to the boat and less to religion we’ll gain by it.”

Jack Vance book The Five Gold Bands

Source: The Five Gold Bands (1950), Chapter 11 (p. 131)

Religion

“I fear, Master Zamp, that you are a victim to your own perfervid imagination.”

Jack Vance book Showboat World

Source: Showboat World (1975), Chapter 11 (p. 123)

Fear , Imagination

“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 Dying Earth

Source: Dying Earth (1950-1984), The Eyes of the Overworld (1966), Chapter 4, "The Sorcerer Pharesm"

“Dismount and kneel before me, that I may strike off your head with fullest ease. You shall die in this tragic golden light of sunset.”

Jack Vance Lyonesse Trilogy

Source: Lyonesse Trilogy (1983-1989), The Green Pearl (1985), Chapter 11, section 3 (p. 538)

Light

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