Here is my book quote of the week, taken from Iain M. Banks in Consider Phlebas.
It was the Culture's fault. It considered itself too civilized and sophisticated to hate its enemies; instead it tried to understand them and their motives, so that it could out-think them and so that, when it won, it would treat them in a way which insured they would not become enemies again. The idea was fine as long as you didn't get too close, but once you had spent some time with you opponents, such empathy could turn against you. There was a sort of detached, non-human aggression required to go along with such mobilized compassion, and Balveda could feel it slipping away from her.
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