187 Quotes by Jack Vance

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.

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.

I become drunk as circumstances dictate.

Somebody else's ignorance is bliss.

I suspect that the word (art) was invented by second-rate intelligences to describe the incomprehensible activities of their betters.

Happiness is fugitive; dissatisfaction and boredom are real.

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's Lyonesse books are the greatest fairy tale of the twentieth century.

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.