We only become beasts — we become worse than beasts — when we torment others.
~ Iain Banks
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We only become beasts — we become worse than beasts — when we torment others.
~ Iain Banks
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Empires are synonymous with centralized — if occasionally schismatized — hierarchical power structures in which influence is restricted to an economically privileged class retaining its advantages through — usually — a judicious use of oppression and skilled manipulation of both the society’s information dissemination systems and its lesser — as a rule nominally independent — power systems. In short, it’s all about dominance.
~ Iain Banks
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All reality is a game. Physics at its most fundamental, the very fabric of our universe, results directly from the interaction of certain fairly simple rules, and chance; the same description may be applied to the best, most elegant and both intellectually and aesthetically satisfying games.
~ Iain Banks
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Roundly insulting one’s superiors behind their backs was one of the perks of being inferior.
~ Iain Banks
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Mocking the wisdom that comes with age is a fit sport only for those who expect never to attain much of it themselves.
~ Iain Banks
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While the forces of repression need to win every time, the progressive elements need only triumph once.
~ Iain Banks
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You can draw the blinds in a brothel, but people still know what you’re doing.
~ Iain Banks
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Empathize with stupidity and you’re halfway to thinking like an idiot.
~ Iain Banks
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What is all your studying worth, all your learning, all your knowledge, if it doesn’t lead to wisdom? And what’s wisdom but knowing what is right, and what is the right thing to do?
~ Iain Banks
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Reason shapes the future, but superstition infects the present.
~ Iain Banks
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