« The natives... called themselves the Sxyzyskzyiks (which means, as everyone knows, "the Civilized People")... Their culture included an appalling suite of precepts whose mastery was used to determine the social status of each. As a result, they barely taught the most of their time learning finger gestures, the right ways to wear earrings, the thousand and one ways of tying laces, ribbons, turbans, scarves, or the precise location of pickles on periwinkles, snails, ham salpicon, grilled meat and other dishes. ("Rhialto the Wonderful") »

« "The sun is already high in the sky," nisbet said. The men of the village will soon arrive to settle on their columns; and here they are. The men arrived in groups of two or three. Cugel watched them climb the columns and settle in the sun. Perplexed, he turned to Nisbet. -- Why do they do that? -- They absorb the healthy flow of sunlight. The higher the column, the more substantial is this flow, as is the prestige of the position. ("Cugel Saga") »

« The Minister of Public Health spoke in turn. The population of the central plain of Dronamand had multiplied to the point that housing was no longer sufficient... While crunching in a melon-spiced district, Aiello ordered the transfer of one million people a week to Nonamand, the sinister southern continent. In addition, all babies born into families with more than two children would be drowned. These were traditional methods of controlling population growth. They would be accepted without resentment. »