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67747b7
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The lie that happiness is about borrowing money you haven't got to buy crap you don't need," says Ian. "The lie that we live in a democratic state. And the most weaselly lie of all, that there is no class war." --
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David Mitchell |
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c43c5a0
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There's a splish of a fish. I see where it was, but not where it is.
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David Mitchell |
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b16504e
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Is peace of mind the co-workability of your laws?
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David Mitchell |
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0bb56ab
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Ultimately, wars escalate by eating their own shit, shitting bigger and eating bigger.
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David Mitchell |
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c58aba7
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I understood that one's environment is a key to one's identity, but that my environment, Papa Song's, was a key I had lost.
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David Mitchell |
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40f68a7
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Half-sloshed mums're rolling their eyes at sun-pinked dads burning bangers on barbecues.
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David Mitchell |
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ec0ebca
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What happens to all the seconds tipped into the bin of the past?
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David Mitchell |
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2ef79a9
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Esther runs Unalaq's ruby thumbnail up the stem of a purple tulip. "You miss purple, after a few years ..."
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David Mitchell |
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b7ad819
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Regret' implies a freely chosen, but erroneous, action; free will plays no part in my story.
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David Mitchell |
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744c696
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The double-crossed, might-have-been history of my country is not the study of what actually took place here: it's the study of historians' studies. . . . Memories are their own descendants masquerading as the ancestors of the present.
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place
memory
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David Mitchell |
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5da5366
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When a man aspires to power, I ask one simple question:"Does he think like a businessman?"' Luisa rolls her napkin into a compact ball. 'I ask tree simple questions. How did he get that power? How is he using it? And how can it be taken off the sonofabitch?"
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David Mitchell |
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cb5ffda
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Men have imagined republics and principalities that never really existed at all. Yet the way men live is so far removed from the way they ought to live that anyone who abandons what 'is' for what 'should be' pursues his downfall rather than his preservation; for a man who strives after goodness in all his acts is sure to come to ruin, since there are so many men who are not good.
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David Mitchell |
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45bac0e
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Wars are never cured, they just go into remission for a few years. The End is what we want, so I'm afraid the End is what we're damn well going to get.
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David Mitchell |
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a3a479c
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Her zaman baska bir savas cikar, Robert. Kokleri hicbir zaman tamamen kazinmaz. Savaslari ne alevlendirir? Guc arzusu, insan dogasinin belkemigi. Siddet tehdidi, siddet korkusu ya da siddetin kendisi bu dehset verici arzunun aracidir. Guc arzusunu yatak odalarinda, mutfaklarda, fabrikalarda, sendikalarda ve devletlerin sinirlarinda gorebilirsin. Bunu iyi dinle ve aklina yaz. Ulus-devlet insan dogasinin sisirilip devasa boyutlara getirilmis ..
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cloud-atlas
qoutes
david-mitchell
wars
human-nature
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David Mitchell |
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181dc21
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Bunlardan nasil bir ahlak dersi cikarmali? Baris, Rabbimiz tarafindan ne kadar sevilse de, ancak komsulariniz da sizin gibi vicdanliysa esas erdemlerden biri sayilir.
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cloud-atlas
david-mitchell
quotes
human-nature
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David Mitchell |
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3b44d9f
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Some magic is normality you're not yet used to.
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David Mitchell |
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5c781ac
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It is a gift from your ancestors and a loan from your descendants.
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David Mitchell |
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9a332c4
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I rarely feel despair, I forget how it gouges.
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David Mitchell |
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cbd34c2
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Only I don't close my eyes these days, because it hurts too much when I open them.
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David Mitchell |
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3fb1ac0
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One cannot cross the same river twice.
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David Mitchell |
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681985f
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I wonder if "Anchorite" means "anchorman," or if it's a Kiwi-ism or a rifle club-ism. Cambridge is full of insiders' words to keep outsiders out."
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David Mitchell |
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09da0ad
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I wince. From the Bank of Floorboards I withdraw my assets and redeposit the wedge of banknotes in my passport bag. This I secure inside my ski jacket, contemplating that, while the wealthy are no more likely to be born stupid than the poor, a wealthy upbringing compounds stupidity while a hardscrabble childhood dilutes it, if only for Darwinian reasons. This is why the elite need a prophylactic barrier of shitty state schools, to prevent c..
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David Mitchell |
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406873e
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When I'm in doubt - as I am now - I ask myself, 'What would Carl Jung do?' - and act accordingly.
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psychology
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David Mitchell |
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68ea67a
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E un ciclo antico come il tribalismo. In principio, c'e l'ignoranza. L'ignoranza genera paura. La paura genera odio, e l'odio genera violenza. La violenza crea altra violenza, finche l'unica legge diventa cio che viene stabilito dal piu forte.
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David Mitchell |
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0c33d63
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My right foot hits the ground first, but my left one's gone AWOL, and I'm cartwheeling, my body mapped by local explosions of pain -- ankle, knee, elbow -- shit, my left ski's gone, whipped off, vamoosed -- ground-woods-sky, ground-woods-sky ground-woods-sky, a faceful of gravelly snow; dice in a tumbler; apples in a tumble dryer, a grunt, a groan, a plea, a shiiiiiiiiit ... [ ... ] Gravity, velocity, and the ground; stopping is going to c..
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skiing
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David Mitchell |
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8c6c1f5
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the Rottnest Light is a stumpy middle finger sticking up from the a rocky rise, grunting, "Sit on this, mate."
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lighthouses
rottnest-light
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David Mitchell |
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6095a86
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I'm not in the Scouts any more,' I remind her. Mr Moody our scoutmaster told me to get lost, so I did, and it took the Snowdonia mountain rescue service two days to find my shelter. I'd been on the local news and everything. Everyone was angry, but I was only following orders.
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David Mitchell |
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6c62815
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While much of her true name lay beyond my knowledge of the Noongar language, as the minutes passed I understood that her name was also a history of her people, a sort of Bayeux Tapestry that bound myth with loves, births, deaths; hunts, battles, journeys; droughts, fires, storms; and names of every host within whose body Moombaki had sojourned.
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noongar
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David Mitchell |
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ce39673
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All defectors have a complex relationship with truth.
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truth
spy
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David Mitchell |
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d6ee314
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Jealous and sweet, this music was, sobbing and gorgeous, muddy and crystal. But if the right words existed the music wouldn't need to.
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David Mitchell |
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2f5a133
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The brigadier I knew has left his bombed-out face, leaving me alone with the clock, shelves of handsome books nobody ever reads, and one certainty: that whatever I do with my life, however much power, wealth, experience, knowledge, or beauty I'll accrue, I, too, will end up like this vulnerable old man. When I look at Brigadier Reginald Philby, I'm looking down time's telescope at myself. M
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David Mitchell |
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38f56c4
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Music leaks out of the Walkman, and a saxophone from long ago circles in the air, so sad it could barely leave the ground.
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David Mitchell |
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40d696d
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You imagine blank verse is a liberation, but no. Discard rhyme, you discard a parachute...
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David Mitchell |
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2981408
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I s'pose if some man's been inside you often enough, it'll take a while to get rid of him. Love's pure free joy when it works, but when it goes bad you pay for the good hours at loan-shark prices.
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David Mitchell |
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75ead42
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When watching the news, it's so easy to forget what most of us are like: pleasant, polite, socially shy. We don't want rows, we want a quiet life. We feel inadequate because we don't protest and argue more - we don't stand up for ourselves. And, in feeling that, we forget that the sort of people who do stand up for themselves are cut from the same cloth as the sort of people you have to stand up to.
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David Mitchell |
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57b0ec5
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Try this for deviancy: fabricants are mirrors held up to purebloods' consciences; what purebloods see reflected there sickens them. So they blame you for holding up the mirror.
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David Mitchell |
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17de748
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The mind is its own place, and in itself can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven
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David Mitchell |
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4c31ce3
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To kill what you'd cherish & cure," he opined, "that seems to be the way of things."
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David Mitchell |
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41a831a
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The pieces fell into place. I fell into pieces.
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David Mitchell |
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52c14c7
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Acting like an insider can be enough to be one.
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David Mitchell |
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8bb67a0
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Three or four times only in my youth did I glimpse the Joyous Isles, before they were lost to fogs, depressions, cold fronts, ill winds, and contrary tides ... I mistook them for adulthood. Assuming they were a fixed feature in my life's voyage, I neglected to record their latitude, their longitude, their approach. Young ruddy fool. What wouldn't I give now for a never-changing map of the ever-constant ineffable? To possess, as it were, an ..
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David Mitchell |
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1c9c8f8
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I watched clouds awobbly from the floor o' that kayak. Souls cross ages like clouds cross skies, an' tho' a cloud's shape nor hue nor size don't stay the same, it's still a cloud an' so is a soul. Who can say where the cloud's blowed from or who the soul'll be 'morrow? Only Sonmi the east an' the west an' the compass an' the atlas, yay, only the atlas o' clouds.
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David Mitchell |
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88bff16
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Siddhartha is a dead man and a living ideal. The man taught about overcoming pain, and influencing one's future reincarnations. "But I pray to the ideal."
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David Mitchell |
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3c339c7
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I thought, I am in this world, but no longer of this world.
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David Mitchell |