Richard > Richard's Quotes

“Good music always defeats bad luck.”
― Jack Vance

“What are your fees?" inquired Guyal cautiously. "I respond to three questions," stated the augur. "For twenty terces I phrase the answer in clear and actionable language; for ten I use the language of cant, which occasionally admits of ambiguity; for five, I speak a parable which you must interpret as you will; and for one terce, I babble in an unknown tongue.”
― Jack Vance, Tales of the Dying Earth

“I understand the gist of your speculation,' said Rhialto. 'It is most likely nuncupatory.”
― Jack Vance, Rhialto the Marvellous

“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.”
― Jack Vance, The Face

“Weak people believe what is forced on them. Strong people what they wish to believe, forcing that to be real.”
― Gene Wolfe, Shadow & Claw

“The difference between stupid and intelligent people – and this is true whether or not they are well-educated – is that intelligent people can handle subtlety. ”
― Neal Stephenson, The Diamond Age: Or, a Young Lady's Illustrated Primer

“Our opponent is an alien starship packed with atomic bombs," I said. "We have a protractor.”
― Neal Stephenson, Anathem

“When you are wrestling for possession of a sword, the man with the handle always wins.”
― Neal Stephenson, Snow Crash

“Boredom is a mask frustration wears.”
― Neal Stephenson, Anathem

“That we occasionally violate our own stated moral code does not imply that we are insincere in espousing that code.”
― Neal Stephenson, The Diamond Age: Or, a Young Lady's Illustrated Primer

“Supposing that originally there was nothing but one creator, how could ordinary binary sexual relations come into being?”
― Neal Stephenson, Snow Crash

“The future is already here – it's just not evenly distributed.”
― William Gibson

“The idea of a Supreme Being who creates a world in which one creature is designed to eat another in order to subsist, and then pass a law saying, "Thou shalt not kill," is so monstrously, immeasurably, bottomlessly absurd that I am at a loss to understand how mankind has entertained or given it house room all this long.”
― Peter De Vries

“If you are allergic to a thing, it is best not to put that thing in your mouth, particularly if the thing is cats.”
― Lemony Snicket, The Wide Window

“It's really a wonder that I haven't dropped all my ideals, because they seem so absurd and impossible to carry out. Yet I keep them, because in spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart.”
― Anne Frank, The Diary of a Young Girl

“Red hair, sir, in my opinion, is dangerous.”
― P.G. Wodehouse, Very Good, Jeeves!

“Mike nodded. A sombre nod. The nod Napoleon might have given if somebody had met him in 1812 and said, "So, you're back from Moscow, eh?”
― P.G. Wodehouse , Mike and Psmith

“Some quick advice for success in life: Don't be afraid, be amazing.”
― Cuthbert Soup, A Whole Nother Story

“Don't ask me when I first mastered the obvious.”
― John Burdett, Bangkok 8

“It took age to see whether the beauty could last.”
― James S.A. Corey, Leviathan Falls

“Stevens, a well-known actress and singer Bosch recognized from appearances on the television shows Hawaiian Eye and 77 Sunset Strip.”
― Michael Connelly, The Wrong Side of Goodbye

“Even more truly is it said: when you don’t know spit, bullshit.”
― Tom Holt, Alexander At The World's End

“The worst thing a general can ever say is, Hell, I never expected that.”
― Tom Holt, Alexander At The World's End

“Carrots are always better then whips.”
― Jussi Adler-Olsen, The Marco Effect

“When I perform a thing,” he says, “I perform it — others may do the announcing then, if they like.”
― Walter Jon Williams, Metropolitan

“This is going to be a hell of a story!”
― Ragnar Jónasson, Blackout