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Jack Vance Quotes
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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
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Jack Vance: 213 quotes3 likes

Jack Vance Quotes

“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)

“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)

“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)

“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)

“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)

“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)

“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)

“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)

“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)

“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)

“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)

“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)

“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)

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

Jack Vance Demon Princes

Source: Demon Princes (1964-1981), The Killing Machine (1964), Chapter 3 (p. 180)

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

Jack Vance Demon Princes

Source: Demon Princes (1964-1981), The Star King (1964), Chapter 10 (p. 122)

“Motto of the Institute: A little knowledge is a dangerous thing; a great deal of knowledge is disaster, which detractors of the Institute scornfully paraphrase to: Somebody else’s ignorance is bliss.”

Jack Vance Demon Princes

Source: Demon Princes (1964-1981), The Star King (1964), Chapter 8 (p. 83)

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

Jack Vance Demon Princes

Source: Demon Princes (1964-1981), The Star King (1964), Chapter 7 (p. 79)

“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.”

Jack Vance Demon Princes

Source: Demon Princes (1964-1981), The Star King (1964), Chapter 6 (p. 59)

“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.”

Jack Vance Demon Princes

Source: Demon Princes (1964-1981), The Star King (1964), Chapter 3 (pp. 32-33)

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

Jack Vance Demon Princes

Source: Demon Princes (1964-1981), The Star King (1964), Chapter 2 (p. 28)

“You will have useful work: the destruction of evil men. What work could be more useful?”

Jack Vance Demon Princes

Source: Demon Princes (1964-1981), The Star King (1964), Chapter 2 (p. 27)

“A natural scientist, examining a single atom, might well be able to asseverate the structure and history of the entire universe!”

Jack Vance Dying Earth

Bah!" muttered Hurtiancz. "By the same token, a sensible man need listen to but a single word in order to recognize the whole for egregious nonsense."
"Morreion", Ch. 8
Dying Earth (1950-1984), Rhialto the Marvellous (1984)

“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?”

Jack Vance Dying Earth

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

“Let them scoff as they see fit! I will never compromise what I consider my art, especially for the sake of gain!”

Jack Vance book Showboat World

“For the sake of gain I’d compromise the art of my grandmother,” muttered Zamp under his breath.
Source: Showboat World (1975), Chapter 14 (p. 168)

“You’re sure you want to look into these cognates? You might see things you wouldn’t like.”

Jack Vance

“So long as I know the truth, I don’t care whether I like it or not.”
Section 6 (p. 186)
Short fiction, Rumfuddle (1973)

“Gambling, in the ultimate study, stems from the passive, the submissive, the irresponsible in human nature; the gambler is one of an inferior lickspittle breed who turns himself belly-upward to the capricious deeds of Luck. Examine now the man of strength and action: he is never led by destiny. He drives on a decided course, manipulates the variables, and instead of submitting to the ordained shape of his life, creates a pattern to his own design.”

Jack Vance

Startling Stories (September 1948), p. 113
Short fiction, Sanatoris Short-Cut (1948)

“My wealth is my shelf of books!”

Jack Vance Demon Princes

Source: Demon Princes (1964-1981), The Face (1979), Chapter 14 (p. 173)

“Do you deny the charges?”

Jack Vance Planet of Adventure

“I neither confirm nor deny them; they are ridiculous.”
Source: Planet of Adventure (1968-1970), The Dirdir (1969), Chapter 20 (pp. 408-409)

“You make very narrow distinctions.”

Jack Vance book Night Lamp

Source: Night Lamp (1996), Chapter 13, section 7 (p. 230)
Context: “Of course! That is the nature of clear thinking.”

“One thing was certain: when someone searched into secret places, he often came up with things he would rather not have found.”

Jack Vance book Night Lamp

Source: Night Lamp (1996), Chapter 5, section 3 (p. 81)

“They meant no harm, of course; they wanted only that he be like themselves, which was the prerogative of all parents.”

Jack Vance book Night Lamp

Source: Night Lamp (1996), Chapter 5, section 1 (p. 68)

“There is no mystery about violence. It is the reflexive act of brutes, boors and moral defectives.”

Jack Vance book Night Lamp

Source: Night Lamp (1996), Chapter 3, section 1 (p. 37)

“Except for a few special cases, title to every parcel of real property derives from an act of violence, more or less remote, and ownership is only as valid as the strength and will required to maintain it. That is the lesson of history, whether you like it or not.”

Jack Vance book The Gray Prince

“The mourning of defeated peoples, while pathetic and tragic, is usually futile,” said Kelse.
Source: The Gray Prince (1975 [serialized 1974]), Chapter 16 (p. 159)

“The travesty exists only because reliance upon abstraction has made reality incomprehensible to you.”

Jack Vance book The Gray Prince

Source: The Gray Prince (1975 [serialized 1974]), Chapter 16 (p. 159)

“How I hate you. If hate were stone I could build a tower into the clouds.”

Jack Vance book The Gray Prince

Source: The Gray Prince (1975 [serialized 1974]), Chapter 15 (p. 152)

“Urban folk, dealing as they do in ideas and abstractions, become conditioned to unreality. Then, wherever the fabric of civilization breaks, these people are as helpless as fish out of water.”

Jack Vance book The Gray Prince

Source: The Gray Prince (1975 [serialized 1974]), Chapter 4 (p. 49)

“You used the word ‘civilization,’ which means a set of abstractions, symbols, conventions. Experience tends to be vicarious; emotions are predigested and electrical; ideas become more real than things.”

Jack Vance book The Gray Prince

Source: The Gray Prince (1975 [serialized 1974]), Chapter 4 (p. 48)

“Often their grievances were real; often they complained from sheer petulance.”

Jack Vance book The Gray Prince

Source: The Gray Prince (1975 [serialized 1974]) Prologue (p. 8)

“My brain, otherwise a sound instrument, has a serious defect—a hypertrophied lobe of curiosity.”

Jack Vance book The Many Worlds of Magnus Ridolph

The Howling Bounders (p. 56)
Short fiction, The Many Worlds of Magnus Ridolph (1966)

“Mystery is a word with no objective pertinence, merely describing the limitations of a mind. In fact, a mind may be classified by the order of the phenomena it considers mysterious.… The mystery is resolved, the solution made known. “Of course, it is obvious!” comes the chorus. A word about the obvious: it is always obvious.… The common mind transposed the sequence, letting the mystery generate the solution. This is logic in reverse; actually the mystery relates to the solution as the foam relates to the beer.…”

Jack Vance book The Many Worlds of Magnus Ridolph

The Unspeakable McInch (p. 39; all ellipses in the original)
Short fiction, The Many Worlds of Magnus Ridolph (1966)

“I’d rather be a live pessimist than a dead comedian.”

Jack Vance

Source: Short fiction, Future Tense (1964), Sail 25 (p. 93)

“Now, as to the persistence of superstition, only an impoverished mind considers itself the repository of absolute knowledge.”

Jack Vance

Source: Short fiction, Future Tense (1964), Sail 25 (p. 84)

“Organization: smooth and relentless; Organization: massive and inert, tolerant of the submissive, serenely cruel to the unbeliever…”

Jack Vance

Source: Short fiction, Future Tense (1964), Dodkin’s Job (p. 15)

“Banish Evil from the world? Nonsense! Encourage it, foster it, sponsor it. The world owes Evil a debt beyond imagination. Think! Without greed ambition falters. Without vanity art becomes idle musing. Without cruelty benevolence lapses to passivity. Superstition has shamed man into self-reliance and, without stupidity, where would be the savor of superior understanding?”

Jack Vance book The Many Worlds of Magnus Ridolph

The Sub-Standard Sardines (p. 132)
Short fiction, The Many Worlds of Magnus Ridolph (1966)

“Here’s some miscellaneous information. First, wear what you like. Personally I dislike uniforms. I never have worn a uniform. Secondly, if you have a religion, keep it to yourself. I dislike religions. I have always disliked religions. In response to the thought passing through each of your skulls, I do not think of myself as God. But you may do so, if you choose.”

Jack Vance

Sail 25 (p. 75)
Short fiction, Future Tense (1964)

“When self-willed microunits combine to form and sustain a durable macrounit, certain freedoms of action are curtailed.
This is the basic process of Organization.
The more numerous and erratic the microunits, the more complex must be the structure and function of the macrounit—hence the more pervasive and restricting the details of Organization.”

Jack Vance

Dodkin’s Job (p. 7)
Short fiction, Future Tense (1964)