AtomicQuote

Iain M. Banks Quote

The point is: what happens in heaven?''Unknowable wonderfulness?' 'Nonsense. The answer is nothing. Nothing can happen because if something happens, in fact if something can happen, then it doesn't represent eternity. Our lives are about development, mutation and the possibility of change; that is almost a definition of what life is: change.''If you disable change, if you effectively stop time, if you prevent the possibility of the alteration of an individual's circumstances - and that must include at least the possibility that they alter for the worse - then you don't have life after death; you just have death.

Iain M. Banks

The point is: what happens in heaven?''Unknowable wonderfulness?' 'Nonsense. The answer is nothing. Nothing can happen because if something happens, in fact if something can happen, then it doesn't represent eternity. Our lives are about development, mutation and the possibility of change; that is almost a definition of what life is: change.''If you disable change, if you effectively stop time, if you prevent the possibility of the alteration of an individual's circumstances - and that must include at least the possibility that they alter for the worse - then you don't have life after death; you just have death.

Tags: heaven, iain m banks, look to windward, religion

Related Quotes

Belief is a wonderful way to pass the time until the facts come in.

Carl R White

Belief is a wonderful way to pass the time until the facts come in.

Tags: aetheism, agnostic, agnostic atheism, agnostic theism, agnosticism, agnostics, allah, almighty, angels, arguments

Roots cannot grow into trees if there are no supernatural elements in the soil. Man cannot grow wealthy and famous if he doesn't contribute to either, the good or evil.

Michael Bassey Johnson

Roots cannot grow into trees if there are no supernatural elements in the soil. Man cannot grow wealthy and famous if he doesn't contribute to either, the good or evil.

Tags: appease, contending, contribution, crude, deity, evil, fame, forces, forces of darkness, god

Even if no salvation should come, I want to be worthy of it at every moment.

Franz Kafka

Even if no salvation should come, I want to be worthy of it at every moment.

Tags: every moment, franz kafka, heaven, kafka, life, moment, salvation, worthy

Echo of the waves appears in the sky, their lights reflected in your eyes. I'm back in our world and happy again. The sound of your voice, compassionate embrace... The power in your touch, serenity of...

Oksana Rus

Echo of the waves appears in the sky, their lights reflected in your eyes. I'm back in our world and happy again. The sound of your voice, compassionate embrace... The power in your touch, serenity of...

Tags: arms, art, artist, bathing, beating, beneath, calm, caress, compassion, compassionate

I have drunk the night and swallowed the stars. I am dancing with abandon and singing with rapture. There is not a thing I do not love. There is not a person I have not forgiven. I feel a universe of...

Kamand Kojouri

I have drunk the night and swallowed the stars. I am dancing with abandon and singing with rapture. There is not a thing I do not love. There is not a person I have not forgiven. I feel a universe of...

Tags: abandon, afterlife, bereavement, celebrate, celebration, dance, dancing, death, death poems, deceased

After you hear and listen. First must come desire. Second must come willingness.Third should come understanding.Fourth should come progression and with progression will come more understanding.

Hyrum Yeakley

After you hear and listen. First must come desire. Second must come willingness.Third should come understanding.Fourth should come progression and with progression will come more understanding.

Tags: admire, admire ration, all, always, appreciate, appreciation, brain, charity, christ, church

In my heaven sweet melodies of the skies ripple pool of the sea playing sweet song to me, sharing tales of the past, blending with mine as mirage, painting new...I breathe in, am in love and alive...

Oksana Rus

In my heaven sweet melodies of the skies ripple pool of the sea playing sweet song to me, sharing tales of the past, blending with mine as mirage, painting new...I breathe in, am in love and alive...

Tags: alive, art, artist, beach, being in love, blending, breathing, dream, healing, heart

The black of the ocean waves was the color of the sorrow in my breast, a sorrow that was never far away and always visible.

Barbara T. Cerny

The black of the ocean waves was the color of the sorrow in my breast, a sorrow that was never far away and always visible.

Tags: 1100s, angel, angels, animagus, d d, devil, devil touched, druids, duchy, duke

My simple explanation of why we human beings, the most advanced species on earth, cannot find happiness, is this: as we evolve up the ladder of being, we find three things: the first, that the tension...

Dr Robin Lincoln Wood

My simple explanation of why we human beings, the most advanced species on earth, cannot find happiness, is this: as we evolve up the ladder of being, we find three things: the first, that the tension...

Tags: adaptation, anthropacy, autognosis, autonomies, autopolesis, biosphere, british author, complex, difficult, earths future

On the seventh day of the Seventh-month, in the Palace of Long Life,We told each other secretly in the quiet midnight worldThat we wished to fly in heaven, two birds with the wings of one,And to grow...

Bai Juyi

On the seventh day of the Seventh-month, in the Palace of Long Life,We told each other secretly in the quiet midnight worldThat we wished to fly in heaven, two birds with the wings of one,And to grow...

Tags: ancient, belonging, china, death, despair, everlasting love, heaven, life, loss, love
About Iain M. Banks

Iain Banks (16 February 1954 – 9 June 2013) was a Scottish author, writing mainstream fiction as Iain Banks and science fiction as Iain M. Banks, adding the initial of his adopted middle name Menzies ( ). After the success of The Wasp Factory (1984), he began to write full time. His first science fiction book, Consider Phlebas, appeared in 1987, marking the start of the Culture series. His books have been adapted for theatre, radio, and television. In 2008, The Times named Banks in their list of "The 50 greatest British writers since 1945".
In April 2013, Banks announced he had inoperable cancer and was unlikely to live beyond a year. He died on 9 June 2013.