Iain Banks Quotes

Quotes about:

• Empathize with stupidity and you're halfway to thinking like an idiot.

  Iain Banks

  Thinking, Stupidity, Idiot

  "Consider Phlebas" by Iain Banks, Orbit Books paperback edition, (p. 27), 1987.

  56 Copy quote

• The point is, there is no feasible excuse for what are, for what we have made of ourselves. We have chosen to put profits before people, money before morality, dividends before decency, fanaticism before fairness, and our own trivial comforts before the unspeakable agonies of others

  Iain Banks

  Agony, People, Comfort

  25 Copy quote

• Oh, they never lie. They dissemble, evade, prevaricate, confound, confuse, distract, obscure, subtly misrepresent and willfully misunderstand with what often appears to be a positively gleeful relish and are generally perfectly capable of contriving to give one an utterly unambiguous impression of their future course of action while in fact intending to do exactly the opposite, but they never lie. Perish the thought.

  Iain Banks

  Lying, Opposites, Giving

  Iain M. Banks (2010). “Look To Windward”, p.23, Hachette UK

  6 Copy quote

• One should never mistake pattern for meaning.

  Iain Banks

  Mistake, Patterns, Should

  15 Copy quote

• Truth, I have learned, differs for everybody. Just as no two people ever see a rainbow in exactly the same place - and yet both most certainly see it, while the person seemingly standing right underneath it does not see it at all - so truth is a question of where one stands, and the direction one is looking in at the time.

  Iain Banks

  Truth, Two, People

  Iain M. Banks (2007). “Inversions”, p.20, Simon and Schuster

  18 Copy quote

• A guilty system recognizes no innocents.

  Iain Banks

  Guilt, Guilty

  "The Player of Games" by Iain Banks, Orbit Books paperback edition, (p. 215), 1988.

  17 Copy quote

• Political correctness is what right-wing bigots call what everybody else calls being polite

  Iain Banks

  Wings, Political, Polite

  Iain Banks (2008). “Dead Air”, p.118, Hachette UK

  10 Copy quote

• The trouble with writing fiction is that it has to make sense, whereas real life doesn't.

  Iain Banks

  Real, Writing, Fiction

  "Iain Banks: the final interview". Interview with Stuart Kelly, www.theguardian.com. June 15, 2013.

  16 Copy quote

• People can be teachers and idiots; they can be philosophers and idiots; they can be politicians and idiots... in fact I think they have to be... a genius can be an idiot. The world is largely run for and by idiots; it is no great handicap in life and in certain areas is actually a distinct advantage and even a prerequisite for advancement.

  Iain Banks

  Running, Teacher, Thinking

  Iain Banks (2008). “The Crow Road”, Macadam Cage Pub

  23 Copy quote

• All you ever were was a little bit of the universe, thinking to itself. Very specific; this bit, here, right now. All the rest was fantasy.

  Iain Banks

  Thinking, Littles, Fantasy

  Iain M. Banks (2010). “Surface Detail”, p.326, Hachette UK

  6 Copy quote

• There's an old Sysan saying that the soup of life is salty enough without adding tears to it.

  Iain Banks

  Tears, Soup, Life Is

  Iain Banks (2002). “Look to Windward”, p.389, Simon and Schuster

  22 Copy quote

• One should never regret one's excesses, only one's failures of nerve.

  Iain Banks

  Regret, Nerves, Excess

  Iain M. Banks (2012). “The Hydrogen Sonata: A Culture Novel”, p.230, Hachette UK

  6 Copy quote

• Reason shapes the future, but superstition infects the present.

  Iain Banks

  Shapes, Superstitions, Reason

  "The State of the Art" by Iain Banks, Night Shade Books paperback edition, (p. 75), 1991.

  7 Copy quote

• My gratitude extends beyond the limits of my capacity to express it.

  Iain Banks

  Gratitude, Limits, Capacity

  Iain M. Banks (2008). “The Player Of Games: A Culture Novel”, p.151, Hachette UK

  15 Copy quote

• Half the fun of writing a novel is finding out from other people later on what you actually meant.

  Iain Banks

  Fun, Writing, People

  7 Copy quote

• Science fiction is trying to find alternative ways of looking at realities.

  Iain Banks

  Reality, Trying, Alternatives

  "Sci-Fi Writer Iain Banks Talks Surface Detail's Hell, Creationist Heresy". Wired Interview, www.wired.com. October 15, 2010.

  16 Copy quote

• Any theory which causes solipsism to seem just as likely an explanation for the phenomena it seeks to describe ought to be held in the utmost suspicion.

  Iain Banks

  Causes, Theory, Suspicion

  9 Copy quote

• I'm saying with very few exceptions nothing lasts forever, and among those exceptions, no work or thought of man is numbered.

  Iain Banks

  Men, Forever, Lasts

  Iain M. Banks (2008). “Use Of Weapons”, p.102, Hachette UK

  4 Copy quote

• I just think people overvalue argument because they like to hear themselves talk.

  Iain Banks

  Thinking, People, Argument

  "Use of Weapons". Book by Iain Banks Chapter II (p. 417), 1990.

  7 Copy quote

• If you have any helpful suggestions I'd be pleased to hear them. If all you can do is make snide insinuations then it would probably benefit all concerned if you bestowed the fruits of your prodigious wit on someone with the spare time to give them the consideration they doubtless deserve.

  Iain Banks

  Giving, Suggestions, Benefits

  "Excession (The Culture, Book 5)". Book by Iain Banks (Chapter 7 "Tier", Section III, p. 219), 1996.

  8 Copy quote

• I think the easiest people to fool are ourselves. Fooling ourselves may even be a necessary precondition for fooling others.

  Iain Banks

  Thinking, People, May

  Iain Banks (1986). “The bridge”

  9 Copy quote

• People were always sorry. Sorry they had done what they had done, sorry they were doing what they were doing, sorry they were going to do what they were going to do; but they still did whatever it is. The sorrow never stopped them; it just made them feel better. And so the sorrow never stopped.

  Iain Banks

  Sorry, Feel Better, People

  6 Copy quote

• There has seldom if ever a shortage of eager young males prepared to kill and die to preserve the security, comfort and prejudices of their elders, and what you call heroism is just an expression of this simple fact; there is never a scarcity of idiots.

  Iain Banks

  Simple, Expression, Facts

  12 Copy quote

• One of the advantages of having laws is the pleasure one may take in breaking them.

  Iain Banks

  Law, May, Pleasure

  "The Player of Games (The Culture, Book 2)". Book by Iain Banks (Chapter 2, p. 279), 1988.

  6 Copy quote

• Experience as well as common sense indicated that the most reliable method of avoiding self-extinction was not to equip oneself with the means to accomplish it in the first place.

  Iain Banks

  Mean, Self, Common Sense

  "Consider Phlebas (The Culture, Book 1)". Book by Iain Banks (Chapter 4 "Temple of Light", p. 96), 1987.

  7 Copy quote

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