Quote

I am, as I have always been, of the opinion that while the niceties of normal moral constraints should be our guides, they must not be our masters.

Iain Banks

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Iain Banks
Age: 59 †
Born: 1954
Born: February 16
Died: 2013
Died: June 9
Author
Novelist
Philosopher
Science Fiction Writer
Writer
Iain M. Banks
Iain Menzies Banks
Normal
Opinion
Moral
Must
Niceties
Always
Constraints
Guides
Morality
Masters

More quotes by Iain Banks

Image
In theory, I work an eight-hour day and a five-day week which means I can socialise with my pals who mostly have normal jobs like teaching and computer programming.
Iain Banks
Image
I think we need politicians we need people who want to serve.
Iain Banks
Image
You're a wicked man. Thank you. It's taken years of diligent practice.
Iain Banks
Image
-Then what, Lededje asked, trying to keep her voice cold and not get caught up in the avatar´s obvious enthusiasm, is making you smile about a disaster? -Well, first, I didn´t cause it! Nothing to do with me, hands clean. Always a bonus.
Iain Banks
Image
Smell is a very animal thing, almost reptilian, where the more cerebral things like reading less so.
Iain Banks
Image
The trouble with writing fiction is that it has to make sense, whereas real life doesn't.
Iain Banks
Image
It gripped her hand gently. 'Regret is for humans,' it said. She laughed. 'Really?' The machine shrugged and let go of her hand. 'Oh, no. It's just something we tell ourselves.
Iain Banks
Image
Science fiction has its own history, its own legacy of what's been done, what's been superseded, what's so much part of the furniture it's practically part of the fabric now, what's become no more than a joke... and so on. It's just plain foolish, as well as comically arrogant, to ignore all this, to fail to do the most basic research.
Iain Banks
Image
What is any achievement, however great it was, once time itself is dead?
Iain Banks
Image
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
Image
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
Image
I am not being obtuse. You are being paranoid.
Iain Banks
Image
Escape is a consumer goods like another
Iain Banks
Image
I love writing and can't imagine not being able to do it. I want an easy life and if it had been difficult I wouldn't be doing it. I do admire writers who do it even though it costs them.
Iain Banks
Image
There are no gods, we are told, so I must make my own salvation.
Iain Banks
Image
It was the day my grandmother exploded.
Iain Banks
Image
I just come up with the stories and write them as well as I can. There's not really a great deal of strokey-beard thinking going on.
Iain Banks
Image
I'm from out of town, he said breezily. This was true. He'd never been within a hundred light-years of the place.
Iain Banks
Image
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
Image
I'm an only child so am happy with my own company and I don't really get lonely.
Iain Banks