I suspect that the word (art) was invented by second-rate intelligences to describe the incomprehensible activities of their betters. Jack Vance More Quotes by Jack Vance More Quotes From Jack Vance Truth" is contained in the preconceptions of him who seeks to define it. Any organization of ideas whatever presupposes a judgment on the world. Jack Vance organizationworldideas Conversation! Supple sentences, with first and second meanings and overtones beyond, outrageous challenges with cleverly planned slip-points, rebuttals of elegant brevity; deceptions and guiles, patient explanations of the obvious, fleeting allusions to the unthinkable. As a preliminary, the conversationalist must gauge the mood, the intelligence and the verbal facility of the company. To this end, a few words of pedantic exposition often prove invaluable. Jack Vance fleetingdeceptionchallenges I'd never been published when I was young. Jack Vance young I got done writing Ports of Call and suddenly realized I have far too much material for the book. Jack Vance donewritingbook But Roy Rockwood, it was science fiction for the sake of science fiction. Jack Vance sakesciencefiction 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 orthodoxyrealease 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 dyingsatisfactionends It is useless, after all, to complain against inexorable reality. Jack Vance uselesscomplainingreality Count me not your friend but the enemy of your enemies. Jack Vance enemy If there were no such creatures as minstrel-maidens, it would be necessary to invent them. Jack Vance minstrelsmaidenswould-be I give dignity second place to expedience. Jack Vance expediencedignitygiving I know that the history of man is not his technical triumphs, his kills, his victories. It is a composite, a mosaic of a trillion pieces, the account of each man's accommodation with his conscience. This is the true history of the race. Jack Vance victoryracemen 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 realizingbalanceparty When you demand the nature of my motives, you reveal the style of your thinking to be callow, captious, superficial, craven, uncertain and impudent. Jack Vance demandstylethinking Vance has a genius in evoking the beauty of strangeness, the strangeness of beauty. Jack Vance strangenessgenius I categorically declare first my absolute innocence, second my lack of criminal intent, and third my effusive apologies. Jack Vance criminalsapologyfirsts 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 tryingmenorder The universe is eight billion years old, the last two billion of which have produced intelligent life. During this time not one hour of absolute equity has prevailed. Jack Vance eightintelligentyears Jack Vance's Lyonesse books are the greatest fairy tale of the twentieth century. Jack Vance fairy-talecenturybook I must cite an intrinsic condition of the universe. We set forth in any direction which seems convenient; each leads to the same place: the end of the universe. Jack Vance convenientcitingends
