5 Quotes by Ian M. Banks

Those who are most sincere are also the most morally suspect, as well as being incapable of producing or appreciating wit.

The ship told you the guilty systems recognizes no innocents. I'd say it does. It recognizes the innocence... only to violate it.

There was also the Argument of Increasing Decency, which basically held that cruelty was linked to stupidity and that the link between intelligence, imagination, empathy and good-behaviour-as-it-was-generally-understood – i.e. not being cruel to others – was as profound as these matters ever got.

Things mean pretty much what we want them to mean.

There are no gods, we are told, so I must make my own salvation.