40 quotes
I can tell you this at least. The most convincing disguise for legitimacy is legitimacy itself.
Demon Princes (1964)
Who are our basic enemies? This is a secret, unknown even to those basic enemies.
Demon Princes (1964)
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.
Demon Princes (1964)
The central problem, so it seemed, was to learn from whose eye he looked forth. Much, after all, would depend upon his viewpoint.
Demon Princes (1964)
“And thereby hangs a tale,” as the monkey said while describing the cat’s rear-quarters.
Demon Princes (1964)
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.
Demon Princes (1964)
“As always there is someone to hold a tight hand on the purse strings—usually the most affluent of the persons in authority.”
“This is how they become affluent.”
Demon Princes (1964)
Remember, not all lawyers are fools!
Demon Princes (1964)
My wealth is my shelf of books!
Demon Princes (1964)
Money lost, little lost.
Honor lost, much lost.
Pluck lost, all lost.
(This is a quote from E.W. Hornung’s Raffles stories.)
Demon Princes (1964)
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.
Demon Princes (1964)
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.
Demon Princes (1964)
My own concepts in this regard are easy and clear, and I am sure that the word “simplistic” will be used by my critics. These folk are callow and turgid of intellect; I am reassured by their howls and yelps.
Demon Princes (1964)
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.
Demon Princes (1964)
If religions are diseases of the human psyche, as the philosopher Grintholde asserts, then religious wars must be reckoned the resultant sores and cankers infecting the aggregate corpus of the human race. Of all wars, these are the most detestable, since they are waged for no tangible gain, but only to impose a set of arbitrary credos upon another’s mind.
Demon Princes (1964)
Deeming the unsubstantiated dogma of a localized religious cult to be an undignified and unsuitable base on which to erect the chronology of galactic man, the members of this convention hereby declare that time shall now be reckoned from the year 2000 A.D. (Old System), which becomes the year 0. The revolution of Earth about Sol remains the standard annual unit.
Demon Princes (1964)
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.
Demon Princes (1964)
“Don’t you think it’s a bit—well, intense? Are people really interested in these matters?”
“If not they should be.”
“Easily said, but it’s no way to run a magazine. People don’t want to really understand anything; they want to think they have learned without the necessity of application.”
Demon Princes (1964)
“You were notified in regard to a recent conclave of the Dexad at Wild Isle?”
“Yes. I chose not to attend. In discussions I find myself consistently a minority of one, and my presence seems unnecessary.”
Demon Princes (1964)
Alice put her hands on his shoulder. “And now, what of you?”
“What of me, how?”
“You’re so quiet and subdued! You worry me. Are you well?”
“Quite well. Deflated, perhaps. I have been deserted by my enemies. Treesong is dead. The affair is over. I am done.”
Demon Princes (1964)