--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: Nice people who are beginning to live to…" description: "\"“Nice people who are beginning to live to a great age - as it were - react with such revulsion to the burgeoning horrors that confront them, they gener..." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/fe6/iain-m-banks-3729_nice-people_nice-people-who-are-beginning-to-live-to_1430972.jpg" --- # Nice people who are beginning to live to a great age - as… ![“Nice people who are beginning to live to a great age - as it were - react with such revulsion to the burgeoning horrors that confront them, they generally prefer suicide. It's only us slightly malevolent types who are able to survive that realisation and find a kind of pleasure - or at least…” quote by Iain M. Banks](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/fe6/iain-m-banks-3729_nice-people_nice-people-who-are-beginning-to-live-to_1430972.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/fe6/iain-m-banks-3729_nice-people_nice-people-who-are-beginning-to-live-to_1430972.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/fe6/iain-m-banks-3729_nice-people_nice-people-who-are-beginning-to-live-to_1430972.jpg) > ““Nice people who are beginning to live to a great age - as it were - react with such revulsion to the burgeoning horrors that confront them, they generally prefer suicide. It's only us slightly malevolent types who are able to survive that realisation and find a kind of pleasure - or at least satisfaction - in watching how the latest generation or most recently evolved species can re-discover and beat out afresh the paths to disaster, ignominy and shame we had naively assumed might have become hopelessly over-grown.”” [Iain M. Banks](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/iain-m-banks/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. Some find pleasure in watching humanity repeat catastrophic cycles, revealing a morbid fascination with disaster. **In simple terms:** People sometimes enjoy seeing others fail. Key Takeaway Recognize and break destructive patterns. Themes human nature destruction survival entertainment Mood cynical thought‑provoking philosophical Type literary critical When to use this quote - political analysis - social critique - philosophical debate Key Concepts cynicism nihilism history progress Questions to Reflect On - Why are we drawn to disaster? - Can we find joy in constructive change? A Different Perspective Such a view can be overly pessimistic, ignoring hope. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Nice people](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/nice-people/) [Suicide](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/suicide/) [Wisdom-in-fiction](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/wisdom-in-fiction/) ## Related quotes > [A great age of literature is perhaps always a great age of translations.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ezra-pound/a-great-age-of-literature-is-perhaps-always-a-great-age-of/) [Ezra Pound](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ezra-pound/) > [It would be so great to have someone my own age to talk to, even if it was just about books.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alex-flinn/it-would-be-so-great-to-have-someone-my-own-age-to-talk-to-even-if-it/) [Alex Flinn](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alex-flinn/) > [Sex is great, but when you get to be my age, you've got to pace it a little bit. Otherwise you get tired.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/don-rickles/sex-is-great-but-when-you-get-to-be-my-age-you-ve-got-to-pace-it-a/) [Don Rickles](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/don-rickles/) > [You can be great at any age](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/kishore-bansal/you-can-be-great-at-any-age/) [Kishore Bansal](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/kishore-bansal/) > [Age only matters when one is aging. Now that I have arrived at a great age, I might as well be twenty.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/pablo-picasso/age-only-matters-when-one-is-aging-now-that-i-have-arrived-at-a-great/) [Pablo Picasso](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/pablo-picasso/) > [The most curious social convention of the great age in which we live is the one to the effect that religious opinions should be…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/the-most-curious-social-convention-of-the-great-age-in-which-we-live/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) > [As soon as you hit 40, you have to defend your right to be that great age,' and still working in the media. But…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/tess-daly/as-soon-as-you-hit-40-you-have-to-defend-your-right-to-be-that-great/) [Tess Daly](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/tess-daly/) > [I think it would be great if there were no age limit.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/paula-abdul/i-think-it-would-be-great-if-there-were-no-age-limit/) [Paula Abdul](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/paula-abdul/) > [I believe that there was a great age, a great epoch when man did not make war: previous to 2000 B.C. Then the self…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/d-h-lawrence/i-believe-that-there-was-a-great-age-a-great-epoch-when-man-did-not/) [D. H. Lawrence](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/d-h-lawrence/) > [I grew up in the prolonged survival of the great age of the horse, with harness and saddle and sleigh bells and horse pictures,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/paul-engle/i-grew-up-in-the-prolonged-survival-of-the-great-age-of-the-horse/) [Paul Engle](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/paul-engle/) > [“With the consolidation under Menes it was already an institution of great age, and over four centuries of development which then followed, had at…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/james-henry-breasted/with-the-consolidation-under-menes-it-was-already-an-institution-of/) [James Henry Breasted](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/james-henry-breasted/) > [We must produce a great age, or see the collapse of the upward striving of our race.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alfred-north-whitehead/we-must-produce-a-great-age-or-see-the-collapse-of-the-upward/) [Alfred North Whitehead](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alfred-north-whitehead/) > [When I wrote my first story, all the characters were teenagers because I think 16, 17 is a great age.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/julie-kagawa/when-i-wrote-my-first-story-all-the-characters-were-teenagers-because/) [Julie Kagawa](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/julie-kagawa/) > [“Like Princes crowned they bore them-- Like Demi-Gods they wrought, When the New World lay before them In headlong fact and thought. Fate and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rudyard-kipling/like-princes-crowned-they-bore-them-like-demi-gods-they-wrought-when/) [Rudyard Kipling](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rudyard-kipling/) > [Twenty-seven is a great age to play. There is so much ahead of you.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rafael-van-der-vaart/twenty-seven-is-a-great-age-to-play-there-is-so-much-ahead-of-you/) [Rafael van der Vaart](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rafael-van-der-vaart/) ## More by Iain M. Banks > [“It never ceased to amaze him how quickly a small child's face could turn from peach to beetroot.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/iain-m-banks/it-never-ceased-to-amaze-him-how-quickly-a-small-child-s-face-could/) [Iain M. Banks](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/iain-m-banks/) > [“There's something very... I don't know; primitive, perhaps, about you, Gurgeh. You've never changed sex, have you?' He shook his head. 'Or slept with…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/iain-m-banks/there-s-something-very-i-don-t-know-primitive-perhaps-about-you/) [Iain M. Banks](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/iain-m-banks/) > [ “\[I\]t was really only in the generation or two before hers that the idea had started to traverse the spectrum of likelihood in the… ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/iain-m-banks/i-t-was-really-only-in-the-generation-or-two-before-hers-that-the/) [Iain M. Banks](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/iain-m-banks/) > [“Some problems were generational; you just had to wait for the relevant elders to die off and be replaced with more progressive types.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/iain-m-banks/some-problems-were-generational-you-just-had-to-wait-for-the-relevant/) [Iain M. Banks](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/iain-m-banks/) > [“I can understand that people want to feel special and important and so on, but that self-obsession seems a bit pathetic somehow. Not being…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/iain-m-banks/i-can-understand-that-people-want-to-feel-special-and-important-and/) [Iain M. Banks](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/iain-m-banks/) > [“We always want more, he thought, we always take our past successes for granted and assume they point the way to future success. But…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/iain-m-banks/we-always-want-more-he-thought-we-always-take-our-past-successes-for/) [Iain M. Banks](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/iain-m-banks/) > [“just one more species, which would grow and expand and then, finding the plateau phase all non-suicidal species eventually arrived at, settle down.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/iain-m-banks/just-one-more-species-which-would-grow-and-expand-and-then-finding/) [Iain M. Banks](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/iain-m-banks/) > [“Darkness came like a black flag waved over the canyon, drawing back the grayness from the shores of the city, then pushing forward the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/iain-m-banks/darkness-came-like-a-black-flag-waved-over-the-canyon-drawing-back/) [Iain M. Banks](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/iain-m-banks/) > [“Then the machine started to reel off infant-mortality rates and life-expectancy figures, sex ratios, types of diseases and their prevalence in the various strata…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/iain-m-banks/then-the-machine-started-to-reel-off-infant-mortality-rates-and-life/) [Iain M. Banks](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/iain-m-banks/) > [“he saw that which cannot be seen; a concept; the adaptive, self-seeking urge to survive, to bend everything that can be reached to that…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/iain-m-banks/he-saw-that-which-cannot-be-seen-a-concept-the-adaptive-self-seeking/) [Iain M. Banks](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/iain-m-banks/) > [“Their history wasn’t so far off the mean track, they were going through what a thousand other civilizations had gone through, and no doubt…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/iain-m-banks/their-history-wasn-t-so-far-off-the-mean-track-they-were-going/) [Iain M. Banks](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/iain-m-banks/) > [“Tell me, what is happiness?” “Happiness? Happiness... is to wake up, on a bright spring morning, after an exhausting first night spent with a…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/iain-m-banks/tell-me-what-is-happiness-happiness-happiness-is-to-wake-up-on-a/) [Iain M. Banks](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/iain-m-banks/) > [“Most people are not prepared to have their minds changed," he said. "And I think they know in their hearts that other people are…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/iain-m-banks/most-people-are-not-prepared-to-have-their-minds-changed-he-said-and/) [Iain M. Banks](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/iain-m-banks/) > [“Once one survives the trough that comes with the understanding that people are going to go on being stupid and cruel to each other…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/iain-m-banks/once-one-survives-the-trough-that-comes-with-the-understanding-that/) [Iain M. Banks](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/iain-m-banks/) > [“God, what did any of it matter, in the end? You lived; you died. You were as indistinguishable from a distance as one of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/iain-m-banks/god-what-did-any-of-it-matter-in-the-end-you-lived-you-died-you-were/) [Iain M. Banks](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/iain-m-banks/) [Explore all 122 Iain M. Banks quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/iain-m-banks/) ## More Nice people quotes > [You don't know nice people until you've been to the south.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/you-don-t-know-nice-people-until-you-ve-been-to-the-south/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) > [Good people are found not changed. Recently I read a headline that said, 'We don't teach people to be nice. We simply hire nice…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jim-rohn/good-people-are-found-not-changed-recently-i-read-a-headline-that/) [Jim Rohn](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jim-rohn/) > [I am constantly nice to people. Sometimes they don't deserve it.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rylan-clark-neal/i-am-constantly-nice-to-people-sometimes-they-don-t-deserve-it/) [Rylan Clark-Neal](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rylan-clark-neal/) > [You should never ever be nice with people, they'll take advantage of you & then fuck you.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/nikhil-saluja/you-should-never-ever-be-nice-with-people-they-ll-take-advantage-of/) [Nikhil Saluja](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/nikhil-saluja/) > [I was really, really stagnating and getting bored in the steady work of television and didn't really know what movies I would be making…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alex-graves/i-was-really-really-stagnating-and-getting-bored-in-the-steady-work/) [Alex Graves](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alex-graves/) > [Nice people hate saying 'no' to their friends and family, that's why they get used and taken advantage of.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sonya-parker/nice-people-hate-saying-no-to-their-friends-and-family-that-s-why/) [Sonya Parker](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sonya-parker/) > [Academics are not necessarily nice people.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/noam-chomsky/academics-are-not-necessarily-nice-people/) [Noam Chomsky](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/noam-chomsky/) > [It's nice that people can call me an artist and it's nice that I can refer to myself as such, but it also kind…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/matana-roberts/it-s-nice-that-people-can-call-me-an-artist-and-it-s-nice-that-i-can/) [Matana Roberts](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/matana-roberts/) > [When you are a really iconic character, everyone thinks that's all you can do. It's nice to show people that I'm not a one-trick…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lucas-cruikshank/when-you-are-a-really-iconic-character-everyone-thinks-that-s-all-you/) [Lucas Cruikshank](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lucas-cruikshank/) > [I write for myself - but it is nice when other people like it, too!](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/n-k-jemisin-2/i-write-for-myself-but-it-is-nice-when-other-people-like-it-too/) [N. K. Jemisin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/n-k-jemisin-2/) > [Stop being nice to people who treat you like straight shit. It gives them REASON to take advantage of you!](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/michael-malara/stop-being-nice-to-people-who-treat-you-like-straight-shit-it-gives/) [Michael MAlara](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/michael-malara/) > [I think the thing about music is, it's about communication. If you communicate to anyone, whether someone unknown who's a fan or Lady Gaga,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-ann-sulley/i-think-the-thing-about-music-is-it-s-about-communication-if-you/) [Susan Ann Sulley](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-ann-sulley/) > [Sometimes its nice when people you love need you.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/justin-halpern/sometimes-its-nice-when-people-you-love-need-you/) [Justin Halpern](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/justin-halpern/) > [It is not known why the Lord made the human body as he did, since one might suppose that omnipotence could have made it…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/bertrand-russell/it-is-not-known-why-the-lord-made-the-human-body-as-he-did-since-one/) [Bertrand Russell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/bertrand-russell/) > [Our mandate at Nerdist is that we only get involved with nice people around things that we love. We have the luxury of being…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/chris-hardwick/our-mandate-at-nerdist-is-that-we-only-get-involved-with-nice-people/) [Chris Hardwick](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/chris-hardwick/) [Browse all 462 Nice people quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/nice-people/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“Nice people who are beginning to live to a great age - as it were - react with such revulsion to the burgeoning horrors that confront them, they generally prefer suicide. It's only us slightly malevolent types who are able to survive that realisation and find a kind of pleasure - or at least satisfaction - in watching how the latest generation or most recently evolved species can re-discover and beat out afresh the paths to disaster, ignominy and shame we had naively assumed might have become hopelessly over-grown.”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Iain M. 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