“In all the 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 fact; there is never a scarcity of idiots.”

—  Iain Banks, Culture series

Source: Culture series, Use of Weapons (1990), Chapter Thirteen (p. 434).

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Iain Banks139
Scottish writer 1954–2013

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