L. Sprague de Camp > Quotes

“You don't like the Goths?"
"No! Not with the persecution we have to put up with!"
"Persecution?"
"Religious persecution. We won't stand for it forever."
"I thought the Goths let everybody worship as they pleased."
"That's just it! We Orthodox are forced to stand around and watch Arians and Monophysites and Nestorians and Jews going about their business unmolested, as if they owned the country. If that isn't persecution, I'd like to know what is!”
― L. Sprague De Camp

“There is no mistaking the dismay on the face of a writer who has just learned that his brain child is a deformed idiot.”
― L. Sprague de Camp

“There is no mistaking the dismay on the face of a writer who has just heard that his brain child is a deformed idiot.”
― L. Sprague de Camp

“Discount all praise by nine-tenths, since a king draws flatterers as offal does flies.”
― L Sprague De Camp

“Well, at least measure your drinks,- liquor and loquacity are your besetting weaknesses.”
― L. Sprague de Camp, The Goblin Tower

“On July 6, 1906, Lovecraft acquired a used Remington typewriter. He never, however, took the next logical step: to learn to type by touch. All his life, he typed with his two forefingers, as did many writers of his generation like H. L. Mencken.”
― L. Sprague de Camp, Lovecraft: A Biography

“In his last years, Lovecraft dropped practically all his ethnic phobias and denounced the very opinions he had earlier flaunted.”
― L. Sprague de Camp, Lovecraft: A Biography

“It is said that the mother of King George III told him: “George, be king!” and that many of this well-meaning but far from brilliant monarch’s troubles stemmed from trying to obey her. Likewise, Susie Lovecraft in effect told her son: “Be a gentleman!” She succeeded in making him into a lifelong snob,”
― L. Sprague de Camp, Lovecraft: A Biography

“From 1909 to 1914, Lovecraft turned from adolescent to adult; but his life during this period is an almost utter blank. Apparently he sat at home, day after day, staying up most of the night and in bed all morning, reading voraciously, writing reams of Georgian poetry, and doing little else.”
― L. Sprague de Camp, Lovecraft: A Biography

“He spoke of headaches, indigestion, lassitude, fatigue, depression, and inability to concentrate. Symptoms like these can be caused by any of many ailments, such as hypotension (low blood pressure), hypoglycemia (low blood sugar), hypothyroidism (low thyroid-gland function), and several infections by microörganisms. Some physicians say that an idle, useless existence, such as Lovecraft led for the next decade, is enough by itself to cause the symptoms of which he complained. The medical science of 1908 was not up to coping with Lovecraft’s infirmity, whatever it was.”
― L. Sprague de Camp, Lovecraft: A Biography

“liquor and loquacity are your besetting weaknesses.”
― L. Sprague de Camp, The Goblin Tower

“Now, Lovecraft was notoriously fond of sweets. He consumed vast quantities of chocolate and ice cream; he so saturated his coffee with sugar that a sticky mass was left in the cup. If he was hyperinsulinic, such a practice was guaranteed to cause a collapse of the kind he told about.”
― L. Sprague de Camp, Lovecraft: A Biography

“He seems to have developed a rare, little-understood affliction called poikilothermism. The victim loses the normal mammalian ability to keep his body temperature constant, regardless of changes in the ambient temperature. His body assumes the temperature of its surroundings, as if he were a reptile or a fish.”
― L. Sprague de Camp, Lovecraft: A Biography

“The spook begins to interfere with the writer’s normal mental processes. Sometimes the ghost, by appealing to the writer’s sympathies, tempts the writer to imitate him in one way or another. Catherine says that, when I was working on Lovecraft, I even began to dress in the style affected by HPL, like that of a well-bred undertaker.”
― L. Sprague de Camp, Time and Chance: An Autobiography

“Miniver loved the days of old When swords were bright and steeds were prancing; The vision of a warrior bold. Would set him dancing. Miniver sighed for what was not, And dreamed, and rested from his labors; He dreamed of Thebes and Camelot, And Priam’s neighbors. EDWIN A. ROBINSON”
― L. Sprague de Camp, Lovecraft: A Biography

“Not at all," persisted Chalmers, unaware that Shea was trying to shush him. "The people of the country have agreed to call magic 'white' when practised for lawful ends by duly authorized agents of the governing authority, and 'black' when practised by unauthorized persons for criminal ends. That is not to say that the principles of the science — or art — are not the same in either event. You should confine such terms as 'black' and 'white' to the objects for which the magic is performed, and not apply it to the science itself, which like all branches of knowledge is morally neutral —"
"But," protested Belphebe, "is't not that the spell used to, let us say, kidnap a worthy citizen be different from that used to trap a malefactor?"

"Verbally but not structurally," Chalmers went on. After some minutes of wrangling, Chalmers held up the bone of his drumstick. "I think I can, for instance, conjure the parrot back on this bone — or at least fetch another parrot in place of the one we ate. Will you concede, young lady, that that is a harmless manifestation of the art?"
"Aye, for the now," said the girl. "Though I know you schoolmen; say 'I admit this; I concede that,' are ere long one finds oneself conceded into a noose."

"Therefore it would be 'white' magic. But suppose I desired the parrot for some — uh — illegal purpose —"

"What manner of crime for ensample, good sir?" asked Belphebe.

"I — uh — can't think just now. Assume that I did. The spell would be the same in either case —"

"Ah, but would it?" cried Belphebe. "Let me see you conjure a brace of parrots, one fair, one foul; then truly I'll concede."

Chalmers frowned. "Harold, what would be a legal purpose for which to conjure a parrot?"


Shea shrugged. "If you really want an answer, no purpose would be as legal as any, unless there's something in gamelaws. Personally I think it's the silliest damned argument —”
― L. Sprague de Camp, The Incompleat Enchanter

“Numedidean”
― L. Sprague de Camp, Sagas of Conan: Conan the Swordsman, Conan the Liberator, Conan & the Spider God