Being spoon-fed rosy-hued misinformation by the authorities was no more than people had come to expect—and preemptively discount. They only got suspi… - Iain Banks

He might come in useful.'
'Yeah. So's a broken leg if you want to kick yourself in the back of the head.

Zakalwe, in all human societies we have ever reviewed, in every age and every state, there has seldom if ever been 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.

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