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

“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)

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 "It must be a burden, not even being able to say you were just obeying orders." by Iain Banks?
Iain Banks photo
Iain Banks 139
Scottish writer 1954–2013

Related quotes

Aristotle photo

“The wise man must not be ordered but must order, and he must not obey another, but the less wise must obey him.”

982a.15, W. Ross, trans., The Basic Works of Aristotle (2001), p. 691.
Metaphysics

Isaac Asimov photo

“A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.”

"Runaround" in Astounding Science Fiction (March 1942); later published in I, Robot (1950)
The Three Laws of Robotics (1942)

Ned Kelly photo

“I am a Widow's Son, outlawed and my orders must be obeyed”

Ned Kelly (1855–1880) Australian bushranger

Jerilderie Letter (1879)
Context: Neglect this and abide by the consequences, which shall be worse than the rust in the wheat of Victoria or the druth of a dry season to the grasshoppers in New South Wales I do not wish to give the order full force without giving timely warning, but I am a Widow's Son, outlawed and my orders must be obeyed.

Arthur Jones (inventor) photo
Paul Ludwig Ewald von Kleist photo

“It is interesting but it was tragic. If you receive a military order you must obey. That is where the big difference between a military and a political order comes in. One can sabotage a political order but to disobey a military command is treason.”

Paul Ludwig Ewald von Kleist (1881–1954) German general during World War II

To Leon Goldensohn (25 June 1946). Quoted in "The Nuremberg Interviews", Leon Goldensohn, Robert Gellatel (2004).

Yoko Ono photo

“If your judgement is clouded, you must be carrying too many things which are being a burden to you.”

Yoko Ono (1933) Japanese artist, author, and peace activist

9 October 2009.
Twitter messages

Pierce Brown photo

Related topics