The set-up assumes that the game and life are the same thing, and such is the pervasive nature of the idea of the game within the society that just b… - Iain Banks

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

Really we’re no better—you’re no better—than the savages. They always find excuses to justify their crimes, too. The point is not to commit them in the first place.

The source of my name," the vehicle had replied, "The Hundredth Idiot, is a quotation: 'One hundred idiots make idiotic plans and carry them out. All but one justly fail. The hundredth idiot, whose plan succeeded through pure luck, is immediately convinced he's a genius.' It is an old proverb.