"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."

Still one of the funniest things written in any genre. Jack Vance's magnificent Dying Earth, full of wizards and rogues and magic and monsters and danger everywhere with, every now and then, a hero.