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“Where are the Red Devil bones?”
“Not far distant: beyond the ridge. Can you not sense the presence of so much death?”
Ifness responded in a measured voice: “An intellect in full control of itself unfortunately must sacrifice that receptivity which distinguishes the primitive mentality. This is an evolutionary step I have, on the whole, been happy to make.”

— Jack Vance Durdane series (1971)

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More quotes by Jack Vance

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

The Many Worlds of Magnus Ridolph (1966)

Experience is the only source of wisdom: by which I mean, the competent conduct of life.

Maske: Thaery (1976)

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

Future Tense (1964)

He used a name for himself, true, but we played at Romance, and this is a game where truth is a bagatelle.

Lyonesse Trilogy (1983)

“Everyone is the same,” he told himself. “Anxious to arrive and, when they leave, wondering why they came.”

Demon Princes (1964)

All Jack Vance quotes →

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Jack Vance (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.