“It must be a burden, not even being able to say you were just obeying orders.”

—  Iain Banks, Culture series

“Well, that is always a lie, or a sign you are fighting for an unworthy cause, or still have a very long way to develop civilisationally.”
Source: Culture series, Look to Windward (2000), Chapter 13 “Some Ways of Dying” (p. 312)

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Iain Banks139
Scottish writer 1954–2013

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