Avram Davidson quotes

Sorcery works against Nature, magic works with it. (Avram Davidson)
I can tell you that only a fool destroys useful things merely because he doesn't like them. View quote
Avram Davidson
Where there is no bread, there is no philosophy. View quote
Avram Davidson
Things oughtn't to be the way they are, altogether. But letting a madman burn down the barn is no way to improve them. View quote
Avram Davidson
These precautions, perhaps because they had been taken, proved unnecessary. View quote
Avram Davidson
It is not a very interesting night market, anyway. No wonderful things are sold there, though often one wonders, next day, how one could have bought them... View quote
Avram Davidson
There may be someone here who knows less about all this than I do,” Clemens said, "but I can't imagine who. View quote
Avram Davidson
The instructor-Na has observed in the Na 14 tendencies toward an archaic and dangerous quality to which the ancients gave the name personal ambition. View quote
Avram Davidson
Seven cities claimed blind Homer, dead, Through which blind Homer, living, begged his bread. View quote
Avram Davidson
It was a distinction without a difference. View quote
Avram Davidson
Tell him you'll pay any fine within reason. That dragon-cod can't even read his own name unless it's written in gold ink. (Avram Davidson)
Rumor, I fear, is scarcely as accurate as he is rapid. View quote
Avram Davidson
Experience may be a bitter teacher, but She is a good one. View quote
Avram Davidson
It had not been precisely a fruitful meeting, but it had been a long one. View quote
Avram Davidson
Suppose Sisyphus to have been acquitted his need of forever toiling up his hill in Hell, would he have made the last journey in joy? Or would mere fatigue have extinguished all other emotion, as a torch extinguished in a sconce? View quote
Avram Davidson
Follow me, men! I'm right behind you! View quote
Avram Davidson
There was an inn...which kept no register of...a number of seamstresses and tailors who lacked time and place and perhaps inclination to weave the cloths they cut and sewed, depending instead on the activities of those who preferred not to vex the original owners with the tiresome bookkeeping inseparable from purchase. View quote
Avram Davidson
Surely you'll at least see the Temple? Respect all religions, is my motto, believe in none. Sensible principle. Still, you know, must say, after all, two thousand beautiful priestesses! All ready, willing, able-and I must say-dextrous!- to do their best to inspire male worshippers with love for their goddess, hah-hah! View quote
Avram Davidson
Everything meant something, still, some meanings were revealed sooner than others. And that some were seemingly never revealed in no way disproved the fact. View quote
Avram Davidson
It's not a matter of who runs first or who runs last. It's merely a matter of who gets caught. View quote
Avram Davidson
In general I find little girls enchanting. What a shame they grow up to be big girls and make our lives as miserable as we allow them, and oft-times more. (Avram Davidson)
When the records of our civilization are balanced, then-but perhaps not before-the real importance of dental science will be appreciated. Now it is merely valued at the moment of toothache. View quote
Avram Davidson
But the Red Man denied that time, though it must always be paid for, could always be paid for in money. View quote
Avram Davidson
Though you expel Nature with a pitchfork, she will always return. View quote
Avram Davidson
A querulous whine that was almost a question was succeeded by a deep gobble that was almost an answer. View quote
Avram Davidson