“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 believe. Unless one was a foreigner, of course, or a philosopher.”

—  Iain Banks , Culture series

Source: Culture series, Inversions (1998), Chapter 7 (pp. 125-126)

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 "Did the Doctor really imagine that everbody went around believing different things? One believed what one was told to b…" by Iain Banks?
Iain Banks photo
Iain Banks 139
Scottish writer 1954–2013

Related quotes

Cyrano de Bergerac photo

“To believe something, one must imagine that it is more probable than not. Unless you show him what is probable or he realizes it himself, he may tell you that he believes and yet he will not believe.”

Cyrano de Bergerac (1619–1655) French novelist, dramatist, scientist and duelist

Sun-being to the court
The Other World (1657)
Context: O just ones, hear me! You cannot condemn this man, monkey or parrot for saying that the moon is the world he comes from. If he is a man, all men are free. Is he then not free to imagine what he wants, even if he does not come from the moon? Can you force him to have only your visions? Impossible! You may make him say that he believes that the moon is not a world, but still he will not believe it. To believe something, one must imagine that it is more probable than not. Unless you show him what is probable or he realizes it himself, he may tell you that he believes and yet he will not believe.

Emma Goldman photo

“It is characteristic of theistic "tolerance" that no one really cares what the people believe in, just so they believe or pretend to believe.”

Emma Goldman (1868–1940) anarchist known for her political activism, writing, and speeches

The Philosophy of Atheism (1916)

Gertrude Stein photo

“The thing that is most interesting about government servants is that they believe what they are supposed to believe, they really do believe what they are supposed to believe.”

Gertrude Stein (1874–1946) American art collector and experimental writer of novels, poetry and plays

Wars I Have Seen (1945)

Albert Camus photo

“A nihilist is not one who believes in nothing, but one who does not believe in what exists.”

Albert Camus book The Rebel

Part 2: Metaphysical Rebellion
The Rebel (1951)

Michael Moorcock photo

“It becomes so easy to believe what one wishes to believe.”

Michael Moorcock book The King of the Swords

Source: Book 2, Chapter 2 “The Castle Built of Blood” (p. 320), Corum, The King of the Swords (1971)

Kanye West photo

“Would you believe in what you believe in if you were the only one who believed it?”

Kanye West (1977) American rapper, singer and songwriter

Source: p.19 Thank You and You're Welcome (2009)

Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel photo

“One can only become a philosopher, but not be one. As one believes he is a philosopher, he stops being one.”

Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel (1772–1829) German poet, critic and scholar

“Selected Aphorisms from the Athenaeum (1798)”, Dialogue on Poetry and Literary Aphorisms, Ernst Behler and Roman Struc, trans. (Pennsylvania University Press:1968) #54
Athenäum (1798 - 1800)

Aldous Huxley photo

“One believes things because one has been conditioned to believe them.”

Aldous Huxley book Brave New World

The Controller, Mustapha Mond, in Ch. 17
Variant: People believe in God because they've been conditioned to believe in God.
Source: Brave New World (1932)

“Hitler made it impossible to keep believing in pacifism, which was one of the many terrible things he did to the world.”

Charles Hartshorne (1897–2000) Philosopher

"A hundred years of thinking about God" (1998)

Sören Kierkegaard photo

“There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn't true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true.”

Sören Kierkegaard (1813–1855) Danish philosopher and theologian, founder of Existentialism

Related topics