Did the Doctor really imagine that everbody went around believing different things? One believed what one was told to believe, what it made sense to … - Iain Banks

One believed what one was told to believe, what it made sense to believe. Unless one was a foreigner, of course, or a philosopher.

You could find out most things, if you knew the right questions to ask. Even if you didn’t, you could still find out a lot.

I’m negotiating a tricky course between the minefield of personal honesty on one side and the rocky coast of operational security on the other.

Molgarin shook his head. “Oh dear,” he said. Something worse than cynicism must be abroad if even our aristocracy cannot accept that the rich and powerful may be motivated by purposes beyond acquiring yet more money and increased influence.” He put his head to one side, as though genuinely puzzled. “Can’t you see, Lady Sharrow? Once one has a certain amount of both, one turns to hobbies, or good works or philosophy. Some people become patrons of the arts or charities. Others may—charitably—be said to raise their own lives to the state of art, living as the common herd imagine they would live if they had the chance. And some of us attempt not merely to understand our history, but to influence meaningfully the course of the future.”