# Quote — Iain M. Banks, Against A Dark Background

> She felt cold and battered and tired. This combat flying lark was supposed to have been just a little exotic incident in her life, something to tell people about when she was old. It had never been meant to get this important, never been planned to be this crucial and ghastly and hopeless. It certainly wasn’t supposed to be the end of everything. It couldn’t all just end, could it?
>
> Yes it could, she thought. Somehow she’d never really thought about it before, but yes; of course it could. She didn’t just accept it now; she knew it now. What a time to learn that particular lesson.

- Author: [Iain M. Banks](https://www.leafyquotes.com/iain-m-banks.md)
- Book: [Against A Dark Background](https://www.leafyquotes.com/iain-m-banks/against-a-dark-background.md)
- Page: 219
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Iain_Banks#Against_a_Dark_Background_(1993)) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/iain-m-banks/against-a-dark-background/she-felt-cold

## More from this book

> Hope could be more painful than despair.

p. 474 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/iain-m-banks/against-a-dark-background/hope-could-be-more.md)

> Sorry? Of course he was sorry. People were always sorry. Sorry they had done what they had done, sorry they were doing what they were doing, sorry they were going to do what they were going to do; but they still did whatever it was. The sorrow never stopped them; it just made them feel better. And so the sorrow never stopped. Fate, I’m sick of it all...
>
> Sorrow be damned, and all your plans. Fuck the faithful, fuck the committed, the dedicated, the true believers; fuck all the sure and certain people prepared to maim and kill whoever got in their way; fuck every cause that ended in murder and a child screaming.

p. 484 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/iain-m-banks/against-a-dark-background/sorry-of-course.md)

> Molgarin shook his head. “Oh dear,” he said. Something worse than cynicism must be abroad if even our aristocracy cannot accept that the rich and powerful may be motivated by purposes beyond acquiring yet more money and increased influence.” He put his head to one side, as though genuinely puzzled. “Can’t you see, Lady Sharrow? Once one has a certain amount of both, one turns to hobbies, or good works or philosophy. Some people become patrons of the arts or charities. Others may—charitably—be said to raise their own lives to the state of art, living as the common herd imagine they would live if they had the chance. And some of us attempt not merely to understand our history, but to influence meaningfully the course of the future.”

p. 432 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/iain-m-banks/against-a-dark-background/molgarin-shook-his.md)