A Quote by Iain Banks

I am, as I have always been, of the opinion that while the niceties of normal moral constraints should be our guides, they must not be our masters. — © Iain Banks
I am, as I have always been, of the opinion that while the niceties of normal moral constraints should be our guides, they must not be our masters.
A lot of times, our guides are at the same level that we are at spiritually. We are their jobs, and they are growing through our life experiences. People have this illusion that their guides are all-knowing and all-wise, and why would we need God if we have our guides?
The British are a people who are generally happy, under normal circumstances, to trust politicians to tell us the truth and to leave them to run the country as we get on with our lives. But we reserve the right, always, to make it clear that they are our servants, not our masters, and, when necessary, we can and will take charge.
We must overthrow the material and moral conditions of our present-day life. . . . We must first purify our atmosphere and completely transform the milieu in which we live; for it corrupts our instinct and our will, and constricts our heart and our intelligence
Holy Angels, our advocates, our brothers, our counselors, our defenders, our enlighteners, our friends, our guides, our helpers, our intercessors - Pray for us.
Our knowledge and our ability to handle our problems progress through the open conflict of ideas, through the tests of phenomenological adequacy, inner consistency, and practical-moral consequences. Reason may err, but it can be moral. If we must err, let it be on the side of our creativity, our freedom, our betterment.
As we develop the moral aspect of our lives, we often adapt standards of right and wrong that serve as guides and deterrents for our conduct.
We must seek support in the moral values that have ensured the progress of our civilization. Honesty and hard work, responsibility and faith in our strength are bound to bring us success. There should be no place for despondency. The crisis can and must be fought by uniting our intellectual, spiritual and material resources.
We should keep a careful diary of our moments of envy: they are our covert guides to what we should try to do next.
Sure I am this day we are masters of our fate, that the task which has been set before us is not above our strength; that its pangs and toils are not beyond our endurance. As long as we have faith in our own cause and an unconquerable will to win, victory will not be denied us.
Convinced as I am and as I am from my government that the world needs a new moral architecture over all I believe that this should be the first topic to debate in our world of today, ethics, moral.
We must act now and wake up to our moral obligations. The poor and vulnerable are members of God's family and are the most severely affected by droughts, high temperatures, the flooding of coastal cities, and more severe and unpredictable weather events resulting from climate change. We, who should have been responsible stewards preserving our vulnerable, fragile planet home, have been wantonly wasteful through our reckless consumerism, devouring irreplaceable natural resources.
My dear friend, do not imagine that I am vain enough to ascribe our success [Revolution] to any superiority . . . If it had not been for the justice of our cause, and the consequent interposition of Providence, in which we had faith, we must have been ruined. If I had ever before been an atheist, I should now have been convinced of the being and government of a Deity!
Public opinion shapes our destinies and guides the progress of human affairs.
Health is God's great gift, and we must spend it entirely for Him. Our eyes should see only for God, our feet walk only for Him, our hands labor for Him alone; in short, our entire body should serve God while we still have the time. Then, when He shall take our health and we shall near our last day, our conscience will not reproach us for having misused it.
Progress in our country has always been too slow, and creating change has always been difficult, but we must continue marching towards those ideals written in our founding documents - that all people are to be treated equally under our laws.
Alliances and international organizations should be understood as opportunities for leadership and a means to expand our influence, not as constraints on our power.
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