Jack Vance: Trending quotes (page 9)

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“Another busy day! So let’s to business. The clock moves forward; wasted time is life defeated!”

Jack Vance book To Live Forever

Source: To Live Forever (1956), Chapter VIII, section 3

Life , Business , Time

“A man is like a rope: both break at a definite strain…. The solution is not splicing the rope; it’s lessening the tension.”

Jack Vance book To Live Forever

Source: To Live Forever (1956), Chapter XVI, section 3

““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 Dying Earth

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

Personality , Training

“A notable scheme has occurred to me.”

Jack Vance Lyonesse Trilogy

Source: Lyonesse Trilogy (1983-1989), The Green Pearl (1985), Chapter 1, section 4 (p. 371)

“It had been suggested to her that the flaw lay not in the universe but in herself.”

Jack Vance Dying Earth

Source: Dying Earth (1950-1984), The Dying Earth (1950), Chapter 3, "T'Sais"

Universe

“Why not alter the habits of a lifetime and speak with candour?”

Jack Vance Lyonesse Trilogy

asked Shimrod. “Truth, after all, need not be only the tactic of last resort.”
Source: Lyonesse Trilogy (1983-1989), The Green Pearl (1985), Chapter 17, section 2 (p. 657)

“You drink only sparingly. Is the beer too thin?”

Jack Vance Lyonesse Trilogy

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

Drink , Beer

“Discipline in itself is not a corrupt concept, only discipline that is imposed rather than self-calculated.”

Jack Vance Demon Princes

Source: Demon Princes (1964-1981), The Book of Dreams (1981), Chapter 14 (p. 347)

Self-confidence

“Urbanized men and women experience not life but the abstraction of life, on ever higher levels of refinement and dislocation from reality. They become processors of ideas, and have evolved such esoteric occupations as the critic, the critic who criticizes criticism, and even the critic who criticizes criticism of criticism. It is a very sad misuse of human talent and energy.”

Jack Vance Demon Princes

Source: Demon Princes (1964-1981), The Book of Dreams (1981), Chapter 7 (p. 264)

Reality , Idea , Sadness , Life

“May I inquire as to your motives?”

Jack Vance Demon Princes

“Why do you trouble to ask? You would believe nothing told you.”
Source: Demon Princes (1964-1981), The Face (1979), Chapter 13 (p. 166)

Motivation

“The seconds marched past, traversing that mysterious boundary which separates future from past.”

Jack Vance Demon Princes

Source: Demon Princes (1964-1981), The Face (1979), Chapter 11 (p. 145)

Past , Future

“For many years my nerves were like electric wires. Then I discovered the first axiom of human accord: I accept each person on his own terms. I keep a close tongue in my head; I offer opinions only when so solicited. What a remarkable change! Dissension vanishes, novel facts emerge, digestion flows like a wide river.”

Jack Vance Demon Princes

Source: Demon Princes (1964-1981), The Face (1979), Chapter 7 (pp. 75-76)

Personality , Change

“I can tell you this at least. The most convincing disguise for legitimacy is legitimacy itself.”

Jack Vance Demon Princes

Source: Demon Princes (1964-1981), The Face (1979), Chapter 1 (p. 12)

“My great pleasure is creation—of this I never tire. Some of my guests have complained of a gentle melancholy which hangs in the air; I agree that the mood exists. The explanation, I believe, arises from the fugacity of beauty, the tragic pavanne to which all of us step.”

Jack Vance Demon Princes

Source: Demon Princes (1964-1981), The Palace of Love (1967), Chapter 12 (p. 415)

Pleasure , Beauty , Mood

“Candor is never indiscreet. Truth, which is to say, the reflection of life, is beautiful.”

Jack Vance Demon Princes

Source: Demon Princes (1964-1981), The Palace of Love (1967), Chapter 9 (p. 381)

Truth , Beauty , Life

“Art implies discipline; the more excellent the art, the more rigorous the discipline.”

Jack Vance Demon Princes

Source: Demon Princes (1964-1981), The Palace of Love (1967), Chapter 7 (p. 356)

Art

“I am an unhappy man. I am haunted by my inability to express the inexpressible, to come to terms with the unknown. The pursuit of beauty is, of course, a major psychological drive. It its various guises—which is to say, the urge to perfection, the yearning to merge with the eternal, the explorer’s restlessness, the realization of an Absolute created by ourselves, yet larger than our totality—it is perhaps the most important human thrust.”

Jack Vance Demon Princes

Source: Demon Princes (1964-1981), The Palace of Love (1967), Chapter 6 (p. 346)

Perfection , Beauty

“There is too much knowledge already in the world; we use facts as crutches, to the impoverishment of our senses. Facts are falsehoods; logic is deceit. I know a single system of communication: the declaiming of poetry.”

Jack Vance Demon Princes

Source: Demon Princes (1964-1981), The Palace of Love (1967), Chapter 5 (p. 343)

World , Sense , Knowledge , Communication

“I have much to say about the world, but every year the compulsion dwindles. Let them live and die; it is all one to me.”

Jack Vance Demon Princes

Source: Demon Princes (1964-1981), The Palace of Love (1967), Chapter 5 (p. 342)

World

“The central problem, so it seemed, was to learn from whose eye he looked forth. Much, after all, would depend upon his viewpoint.”

Jack Vance Demon Princes

Source: Demon Princes (1964-1981), The Killing Machine (1964), Chapter 12 (p. 282)

Problem , Learning , Dependency