“"What are your fees?" inquired Guyal cautiously.
"I respond to three questions," stated the augur. "For twenty terces I phrase the answer in clear and actionable language; for ten I use the language of cant, which occasionally admits of ambiguity; for five, I speak a parable which you must interpret as you will; and for one terce, I babble in an unknown tongue."”

— Jack Vance , Dying Earth

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

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote ""What are your fees?" inquired Guyal cautiously. "I respond to three questions," stated the augur. "For twenty terces …" by Jack Vance?

Jack Vance 213

American mystery and speculative fiction writer 1916–2013

Related quotes

“We have a word game in English called "Twenty questions." To play Twenty Questions, one player imagines some object, and the other players must guess what it is by asking questions that can be answered with a "yes" or a "no." I imagine every language has a similar game, and, for those of us who speak the language of science, the game is called The Scientific Method.”

K. Barry Sharpless (1941) American chemist

Nobel Banquet speech, 2001

“I have resolved the question of the Sahara which poisoned us for twenty-five years”

Mohammed VI of Morocco (1963) King of Morocco

Original French: J’ai réglé la question du Sahara qui nous empoisonnait depuis vingt-cinq ans.
About the Western Sahara conflict in an Interview with Le Figaro–September 2001 http://www.maroc.ma/fr/discours-royaux/interview-accord%C3%A9e-par-sa-majest%C3%A9-le-roi-mohammed-vi-au-quotidien-fran%C3%A7ais-%C2%AB-le

“If you want to program in C, program in C. It's a nice language. I use it occasionally…”

Larry Wall (1954) American computer programmer and author, creator of Perl

[7577@jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV, 1990]
Usenet postings, 1990

“To the designer of programming languages, I say: unless you can support the paradigms I use when I program, or at least support my extending your language into one that does support my programming methods, I don't need your shiny new languages. […] To persuade me of the merit of your language, you must show me how to construct programs in it.”

Robert Floyd (1936–2001) American computer scientist

The Paradigms of Programming (1979)

“Sometimes the government has to answer questions with ambiguous language.”

Jason Kenney (1968) Canadian politician and 18th Premier of Alberta

In an interview with Macleans https://www.macleans.ca/politics/jason-kenney-on-life-after-ottawa-and-uniting-albertas-right/ (28 September 2016)
2010s

“Mutual understanding would be immensely facilitated by the use of one universal tongue. But which shall it be, is the great question. At present it looks as if the English might be adopted as such, though it must be admitted that it is not the most suitable. Each language, of course, excels in some feature…. A practical answer to that momentous question must perforce be found in times to come, for it is manifest that by adopting one common language the onward march of man would be prodigiously quickened. I do not believe that an artificial concoction, like Volapuk, will ever find universal acceptance, however time-saving it might be. That would be contrary to human nature. Languages have grown into our hearts.”

Nikola Tesla (1856–1943) Serbian American inventor

A Means for Furthering Peace (1905)

“Painting has a nature which is not entirely translatable into verbal language. I think painting is a language, actually. It's linguistic in a sense, but not in a verbal sense. I think that one wants from painting a sense of life. And I think that is true. One wants to be able to use all of one’s facilities in all aspects of one’s life... You may have to choose how to respond and you may respond in a limited way, but you have been aware that you are alive. The final suggestion, the final statement, has to be not a deliberate statement but a helpless statement.”

Jasper Johns (1930) American artist

interview with Johns conducted in 1975 at Johns’ studio by Yoshiaki Tono, as quoted in Jasper Johns, Writings, sketchbook Notes, Interviews, ed. Kirk Varnedoe, Moma New York, 1996, p. 89
1970s

“The tree which rustles and the heather which grows are for me the grand history, that which will not change. If I speak well their language, I shall have spoken well the language of all times.”

Théodore Rousseau (1812–1867) French painter (1812-1867)

as quoted in Barbizon days, Millet-Corot-Rousseau-Barye by Charles Sprague Smith, A. Wessels Company, New York, July 1902, p. 132
undated quotes

“I think if you know what you believe, it makes it a lot easier to answer questions. I can't answer your question”

George W. Bush (1946) 43rd President of the United States

“That should answer your question. I don't have to respond to every cretin, do I? I am already responding to most of them.”

Luboš Motl (1973) Czech physicist and translator

http://motls.blogspot.com/2017/03/czechs-vow-defiance-after-irrational-eu.html#more
The Reference Frame http://motls.blogspot.com/

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Jack Vance 213

Related quotes

Related topics