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Book: The State of the Art
Quotes of Book: The State of the Art
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  1. Iain M. Banks _ The State of the Art

    I'm the smartest thing for a hundred light years radius, and by a factor of about a million ...... but even I can't predict where a snooker ball's going to end up after more than six collisions.
    book-quote

  2. Iain M. Banks _ The State of the Art

    Money is a sign of poverty. This is an old Culture saying I remember every now and again, especially when I'm being tempted to do something I know I shouldn't, and there's money involved {when is there not?}.
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  3. Iain M. Banks _ The State of the Art

    there is an osmosis from fiction to reality, a constant contamination which distorts the truth behind both and fuzzes the telling distinctions in life itself, categorizing real situations and feelings by a set of rules largely culled from the most hoary fictional clichés, the most familiar and received nonsense. Hence the soap operas, and those who try to live their lives as soap operas, while believing the stories to be true; hence the quizzes where the ideal is to think as close to the mean as possible, and the one who conforms utterly is the one who stands above the rest; the Winner . . .
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  4. Iain M. Banks _ The State of the Art

    First person singular obtaining colloquial orgasm within a Caledonian sandwich,' it said, then looked annoyed, and spoke incoherently into a grille set in its belly, which replied. It looked up and said, 'Sorry. As I was saying: I come in peace.
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  5. Iain M. Banks _ The State of the Art

    She was one of the unfortunates trying to get some sort of human grasp of Earth's economics, and deserved all the light relief she could get. I recall that all through that year you could tell the economists by their distraught look and slightly glazed-looking eyes.
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  6. Iain M. Banks _ The State of the Art

    Earth is a silly and boring planet. If not, then it is too deeply unpleasant to be allowed to exist! Dammit, there's something wrong with those people! They are beyond redemption and hope! They are not very bright, they are incredibly bigoted, and unbe-fucking-lievably cruel, both to their own kind and any other species that has the misfortune to stray within range, which of course these days means damn nearly every species; and they're slowly but determinedly fucking up the entire planet . . .
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  7. Iain M. Banks _ The State of the Art

    So how many infants have to grow up under the shadow of the mushroom cloud, and just possibly die screaming inside the radioactive rubble, just for us to be sure we're doing the right thing? How certain do we have to be? How long must we wait? How long must we make them wait? Who elected us God?
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  8. Iain M. Banks _ The State of the Art

    Three; - and this would be sufficient reason by itself - what are we supposed to be about, Sma? What is the Culture? What do we believe in, even if it hardly ever is expressed, even if we are embarrassed about talking about it? Surely in freedom, more than anything else. A relativistic, changing sort of freedom, unbounded by laws or laid-down moral codes, but - in the end - just because it is so hard to pin down and express, a freedom of a far higher quality than anything to be found on any relevant scale on the planet beneath us at the moment.
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  9. Iain M. Banks _ The State of the Art

    All food, comfort, energy, shelter, space, fuel and sustenance gravitates naturally and easily away from those who need it most and towards those who need it least.
    book-quoteinequality

  10. Iain M. Banks _ The State of the Art

    Just because that was the start of a thousand sentimental stories didn't mean that it didn't actually happen.
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  11. Iain M. Banks _ The State of the Art

    It strikes me that although we occasionally carp about Having To Suffer, and moan about never producing real Art, and become despondent or try too hard to compensate, we are indulging in our usual trick of synthesizing something to worry about, and should really be thanking ourselves that we live the life we do. We may think ourselves parasites, complain about Mind-generated tales, and long for 'genuine' feelings, 'real' emotion, but we are missing the point, and indeed making a work of art ourselves in imagining such an uncomplicated existence is even possible. We have the best of it.
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  12. Iain M. Banks _ The State of the Art

    That's what we've lost, you know. What you've lost; all of you. A sense of wonder and awe and . . . sin. These people know there are still things they don't know, things that can still go wrong, things they can still do wrong.
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