“More than anything else now, though, he wanted to save Darckense. He had seen too many dead, dry eyes, too much air-blackened blood, too much fly-blown flesh, to be able to relate such ghastly truths to the nebulous ideas of honor and tradition that people claimed they were fighting for. Only the well-being of one loved person seemed really worth fighting for now; it was all that seemed real, all that could save his sanity.”

Source: Culture series, Use of Weapons (1990), Chapter I (p. 444).

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "More than anything else now, though, he wanted to save Darckense. He had seen too many dead, dry eyes, too much air-bla…" by Iain Banks?
Iain Banks photo
Iain Banks 139
Scottish writer 1954–2013

Related quotes

Erwin Rommel photo

“Better too much spade work than too little! This work saves blood.”

Erwin Rommel (1891–1944) German field marshal of World War II

Lieber zuviel als zu wenig Spatengebrauch! Diese Arbeit spart Blut.
Source: Infanterie greift an (1937), p. 28.

Ernest Hemingway photo

“He had loved too much, demanded too much, and he wore it all out.”

Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961) American author and journalist

Source: The Complete Short Stories

James Anthony Froude photo
James Frazer photo

“They too, like so much that to the common eye seems solid, may melt into air, into thin air.”

Source: The Golden Bough (1890), Chapter 69, Farewell to Nemi
Context: In the ages to come man may be able to predict, perhaps even to control, the wayward courses of the winds and the clouds, but hardly will his puny hands have strength to speed afresh our slackening planet in its orbit or rekindle the dying fire of the sun. Yet the philosopher who trembles at the idea of such distant catastrophes may console himself by reflecting that these gloomy apprehensions, like the earth and the sun themselves, are only parts of that unsubstantial world which thought has conjured up out of the void, and that the phantoms which the subtle enchantress has evoked to-day she may ban to-morrow. They too, like so much that to the common eye seems solid, may melt into air, into thin air.

Robert Frost photo

“Love at the lips was touch
As sweet as I could bear;
And once that seemed too much;
I lived on air”

Robert Frost (1874–1963) American poet

" To Earthward http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/to-earthward-2/", st. 1 (1923)
1920s

Robert Penn Warren photo
Robert Frost photo
Roberto Clemente photo

“Roberto Clemente doesn't care too much for New York. Says there are too many people and everybody is in too much of a hurry. He had one ride on the subway with Felipe Montemayor as his guide and they got lost.”

Roberto Clemente (1934–1972) Puerto Rican baseball player

As paraphrased in "The Scoreboard: Thursday" https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=b0EqAAAAIBAJ&sjid=000EAAAAIBAJ&pg=4340%2C3027303 by Les Biederman, in The Pittsburgh Press (Saturday, June 11, 1955), p. 6
Other, <big><big>1950s</big></big>, <big>1955</big>

Jeff VanderMeer photo
Clifford D. Simak photo

Related topics