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Quotes from The Hydrogen Sonata — Iain Banks

1954–2013 Scotland

← All quotes by Iain Banks

28 quotes

The news channels are spasming, or frothing, or whatever it is they do.

The Hydrogen Sonata (2013)

Never underestimate the sheer selfishness and stupidity of people.

The Hydrogen Sonata (2013)

The truth is the truth. You tell it even when it hurts or it loses value even when it doesn’t.

The Hydrogen Sonata (2013)

It rarely paid to frighten the masses, and it never paid to confuse them.

The Hydrogen Sonata (2013)

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

The Hydrogen Sonata (2013)

One should never mistake pattern…for meaning.

The Hydrogen Sonata (2013)

Obsession is just what those too timorous to follow an idea through to its logical conclusion call determination.

The Hydrogen Sonata (2013)

Trust me; it is rarely an encouraging sign when the more apparel is removed, the less attractive a prospective sexual partner becomes.

The Hydrogen Sonata (2013)

“Have you always been so suspicious, Banstegeyn?”
He looked at her, unsmiling. “No, I stumbled into a position of great power quite by accident.”

The Hydrogen Sonata (2013)

We are largely the sum of all we’ve done, and to dispose of that knowledge would be to stop being one’s self.

The Hydrogen Sonata (2013)

Ignorance can be interesting.
∞
Also fatal.

The Hydrogen Sonata (2013)

“That seems obsessive.”
“Meticulous care can seem so to those unwilling to recognise it for its true worth.”

The Hydrogen Sonata (2013)

Ah, dear. How fine the line is between acceptably defiant bravado and hopelessly delusional boasting.

The Hydrogen Sonata (2013)

“I do believe my sarcasm-meter just twitched.”
“A false positive, I fear. I was being entirely sincere.”

The Hydrogen Sonata (2013)

“His opinion was: ‘as a challenge, without peer. As music, without merit.’”

The Hydrogen Sonata (2013)

Here’s some thing we don’t know but we can maybe find out, and it’s something that other people don’t want us to know. How much more seductive can you get?

The Hydrogen Sonata (2013)

“Anyway, it was all terribly well organised. Done with military precision.” He barked a laugh. “Better than that, actually; didn’t miss and hit their own people.”

The Hydrogen Sonata (2013)

I have lived ten thousand years; I am used to it. Lovers dying, civilisations dying…one develops a certain god-like indifference to it all, intellectually.

The Hydrogen Sonata (2013)

She hadn’t forgotten all her military training; one point she certainly recalled being taught was that anything that looked like an outrageous coincidence was probably enemy action.

The Hydrogen Sonata (2013)

The reaction was…mixed. Some people…hated it…others…really hated it.

The Hydrogen Sonata (2013)

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Iain Banks (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.