{
  "type": "author",
  "site": {
    "name": "Leafy Quotes",
    "language": "en",
    "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com"
  },
  "formats": "Every page has two versions with the same data: JSON (the page address + .json) and markdown (the page address + .md). Append .json or .md to any `url` in this document.",
  "name": "David Mitchell",
  "slug": "david-mitchell",
  "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/david-mitchell",
  "json": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/david-mitchell.json",
  "markdown": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/david-mitchell.md",
  "image": null,
  "quotes_count": 55,
  "books": [
    {
      "title": "Cloud Atlas",
      "slug": "cloud-atlas",
      "quotes_count": 49,
      "cover": "https://quivercdn.com/covers/sceptre/david-mitchell/cloud-atlas_978-03-4082-278-4.jpg",
      "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/david-mitchell/cloud-atlas"
    },
    {
      "title": "Ghostwritten",
      "slug": "ghostwritten",
      "quotes_count": 3,
      "cover": "https://quivercdn.com/covers/vintage/david-mitchell/ghostwritten_978-03-7572-450-3.jpg",
      "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/david-mitchell/ghostwritten"
    },
    {
      "title": "Number9Dream",
      "slug": "number9dream",
      "quotes_count": 3,
      "cover": "https://quivercdn.com/covers/random-house-trade-paperbacks/david-mitchell/number9dream_978-08-1296-692-3.jpg",
      "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/david-mitchell/number9dream"
    }
  ],
  "recent_quotes": [
    {
      "id": "f07a0830-1640-4af1-9c09-5eb775af0ccf",
      "slug": "i-hear-my-father-in-laws",
      "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/david-mitchell/cloud-atlas/i-hear-my-father-in-laws",
      "text": "I hear my father-in-law's response[...] \"Naïve, dreaming Adam. He who would do battle with the many-headed hydra of human nature must pay a world of pain & his family must pay it along with him! & only as you gasp your dying breath shall you understand, your life amounted to no more than one drop in a limitless ocean!\"\n\nYet what is any ocean but a multitude of drops?",
      "language": "en",
      "character": null,
      "chapter": null,
      "chapter_parent": null,
      "page": 508,
      "verified": false,
      "original": null,
      "other_languages": [],
      "topics": [
        {
          "name": "hope",
          "slug": "hope",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/hope"
        },
        {
          "name": "taking action",
          "slug": "taking-action",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/taking-action"
        }
      ],
      "source": {
        "name": "Wikiquote",
        "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Cloud_Atlas_(novel)#The_Pacific_Journal_of_Adam_Ewing_(Part_2)",
        "license": {
          "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0",
          "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"
        }
      },
      "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:03:57"
    },
    {
      "id": "eafe3abc-8842-4458-89d5-58763a5b265e",
      "slug": "books-dont-offer",
      "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/david-mitchell/cloud-atlas/books-dont-offer",
      "text": "Books don't offer real escape but they can stop a mind scratching itself raw.",
      "language": "en",
      "character": null,
      "chapter": null,
      "chapter_parent": null,
      "page": null,
      "verified": false,
      "original": null,
      "other_languages": [],
      "topics": [
        {
          "name": "reading",
          "slug": "reading",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/reading"
        }
      ],
      "source": {
        "name": "Wikiquote",
        "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Cloud_Atlas_(novel)#Letters_from_Zedelghem_(Part_2)",
        "license": {
          "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0",
          "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"
        }
      },
      "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:03:57"
    },
    {
      "id": "e0b437a5-84a1-40f9-8732-285bcaefb089",
      "slug": "many-xpert-witnesses",
      "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/david-mitchell/cloud-atlas/many-xpert-witnesses",
      "text": "Many xpert witnesses at. our trial denied Declarations could be the work of a fabricant, ascended or otherwise, and maintained it was ghosted by Union or a pureblood Abolitionst.\n\nHow lazily \"xperts\" dismiss what they fail to understand!",
      "language": "en",
      "character": null,
      "chapter": null,
      "chapter_parent": null,
      "page": 346,
      "verified": false,
      "original": null,
      "other_languages": [],
      "topics": [
        {
          "name": "ignorance",
          "slug": "ignorance",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ignorance"
        },
        {
          "name": "authority figures",
          "slug": "authority-figures",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/authority-figures"
        }
      ],
      "source": {
        "name": "Wikiquote",
        "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Cloud_Atlas_(novel)#An_Orison_of_Sonmi~451_(Part_2)",
        "license": {
          "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0",
          "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"
        }
      },
      "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:03:57"
    },
    {
      "id": "dc7a3e54-f797-459b-9717-0af0a6f68ae0",
      "slug": "once-any-tyranny",
      "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/david-mitchell/cloud-atlas/once-any-tyranny",
      "text": "Once any tyranny becomes accepted as ordinary, according to Veronica, its victory is assured.",
      "language": "en",
      "character": null,
      "chapter": null,
      "chapter_parent": null,
      "page": 363,
      "verified": false,
      "original": null,
      "other_languages": [],
      "topics": [
        {
          "name": "tyranny",
          "slug": "tyranny",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/tyranny"
        },
        {
          "name": "indifference",
          "slug": "indifference",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/indifference"
        }
      ],
      "source": {
        "name": "Wikiquote",
        "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Cloud_Atlas_(novel)#The_Ghastly_Ordeal_of_Timothy_Cavendish_(Part_2)",
        "license": {
          "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0",
          "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"
        }
      },
      "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:03:57"
    },
    {
      "id": "cb403ec7-d7ca-4eef-82d1-f8ed603d61c4",
      "slug": "the-actual-past",
      "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/david-mitchell/cloud-atlas/the-actual-past",
      "text": "The actual past is brittle, ever-dimming + ever more problematic to access + reconstruct: in contrast, the virtual past is malleable, ever-brightening + ever more difficult to circumvent/expose as fraudulent.\n\nThe present presses the virtual past into its own service, to lend credence to its mythologies + legitimacy to the imposition of will.",
      "language": "en",
      "character": null,
      "chapter": null,
      "chapter_parent": null,
      "page": 392,
      "verified": false,
      "original": null,
      "other_languages": [],
      "topics": [
        {
          "name": "history",
          "slug": "history",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history"
        },
        {
          "name": "the past",
          "slug": "the-past",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past"
        },
        {
          "name": "manipulation",
          "slug": "manipulation",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/manipulation"
        }
      ],
      "source": {
        "name": "Wikiquote",
        "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Cloud_Atlas_(novel)#Half-Lives:_The_First_Luisa_Rey_Mystery_(Part_2)",
        "license": {
          "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0",
          "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"
        }
      },
      "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:03:57"
    },
    {
      "id": "c187fbb1-b06b-466a-b6f1-a175ba5cc01e",
      "slug": "memories-refused-to-fit",
      "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/david-mitchell/cloud-atlas/memories-refused-to-fit",
      "text": "Memories refused to fit, or fitted but came unglued. Even months later, how would I know if some major tranche of myself remained lost?",
      "language": "en",
      "character": null,
      "chapter": null,
      "chapter_parent": null,
      "page": 354,
      "verified": false,
      "original": null,
      "other_languages": [],
      "topics": [
        {
          "name": "memory",
          "slug": "memory",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/memory"
        }
      ],
      "source": {
        "name": "Wikiquote",
        "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Cloud_Atlas_(novel)#The_Ghastly_Ordeal_of_Timothy_Cavendish_(Part_2)",
        "license": {
          "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0",
          "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"
        }
      },
      "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:03:57"
    },
    {
      "id": "b6925490-e2e0-448c-a615-defa98de0725",
      "slug": "of-all-the",
      "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/david-mitchell/cloud-atlas/of-all-the",
      "text": "[...] of all the world's races, our love—or rather our rapacity—for treasure, gold, spices & dominion, oh, most of all, sweet dominion, is the keenest, the hungriest, the most unscrupulous! This rapacity, yes, powers, our Progress; for ends infernal or divine I know not. Nor do you know, sir. Nor do I overly care. I feel only gratitude that my Maker cast me on the winning side.",
      "language": "en",
      "character": null,
      "chapter": null,
      "chapter_parent": null,
      "page": 489,
      "verified": false,
      "original": null,
      "other_languages": [],
      "topics": [
        {
          "name": "greed",
          "slug": "greed",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/greed"
        },
        {
          "name": "colonialism",
          "slug": "colonialism",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/colonialism"
        }
      ],
      "source": {
        "name": "Wikiquote",
        "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Cloud_Atlas_(novel)#The_Pacific_Journal_of_Adam_Ewing_(Part_2)",
        "license": {
          "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0",
          "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"
        }
      },
      "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:03:57"
    },
    {
      "id": "a0c61b38-1692-47dc-bd38-c6c3d417c0fb",
      "slug": "science-devises-ever",
      "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/david-mitchell/cloud-atlas/science-devises-ever",
      "text": "[...] science devises ever bloodier means of war until humanity’s powers of destruction overcome our powers of creation and our civilisation drives itself to extinction. [...] Our will to power, our science, and those v. faculties that elevated us from apes, to savages, to modern man , are the same faculties that'll snuff out Homo sapiens before this century is out!",
      "language": "en",
      "character": null,
      "chapter": null,
      "chapter_parent": null,
      "page": 444,
      "verified": false,
      "original": null,
      "other_languages": [],
      "topics": [
        {
          "name": "war",
          "slug": "war",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/war"
        },
        {
          "name": "science",
          "slug": "science",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/science"
        },
        {
          "name": "civilization",
          "slug": "civilization",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/civilization"
        }
      ],
      "source": {
        "name": "Wikiquote",
        "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Cloud_Atlas_(novel)#Letters_from_Zedelghem_(Part_2)",
        "license": {
          "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0",
          "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"
        }
      },
      "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:03:57"
    },
    {
      "id": "9e2fc5f6-8f69-49c0-b087-0017c5938c6b",
      "slug": "we-cut-a-pack",
      "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/david-mitchell/cloud-atlas/we-cut-a-pack",
      "text": "We cut a pack of cards called historical context—our generation, Sixsmith, cut tens, jacks, and queens. Adrien's cut threes, fours, and fives. That's all.",
      "language": "en",
      "character": null,
      "chapter": null,
      "chapter_parent": null,
      "page": 442,
      "verified": false,
      "original": null,
      "other_languages": [],
      "topics": [
        {
          "name": "history",
          "slug": "history",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history"
        },
        {
          "name": "fate",
          "slug": "fate",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/fate"
        }
      ],
      "source": {
        "name": "Wikiquote",
        "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Cloud_Atlas_(novel)#Letters_from_Zedelghem_(Part_2)",
        "license": {
          "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0",
          "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"
        }
      },
      "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:03:57"
    },
    {
      "id": "8f32c0f4-382c-4013-9c79-ec8692477f63",
      "slug": "scholars-discern-motions",
      "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/david-mitchell/cloud-atlas/scholars-discern-motions",
      "text": "Scholars discern motions in history & formulate these motions into rules that govern the rises & falls of civilizations. My belief runs contrary, however. To wit: history admits no rules; only outcomes.\n\nWhat precipitates outcomes? Vicious acts & virtuous acts.\n\nWhat precipitates acts? Belief.\n\nBelief is both prize & battlefield, within the mind & in the mind’s mirror, the world. If we believe humanity is a ladder of tribes, a colosseum of confrontation, exploitation & bestiality, such a humanity is surely brought into being, & history’s Horroxes, Boer-haaves & Gooses shall prevail. You & I, the moneyed, the privileged, the fortunate, shall not fare so badly in this world, provided our luck holds. What of it if our consciences itch? Why undermine the dominance of our race, our gunships, our heritage & our legacy? Why fight the “natural” (oh, weaselly word!) order of things?\n\nWhy? Because of this: — one fine day, a purely predatory world shall consume itself. Yes, the Devil shall take the hindmost until the foremost is the hindmost. In an individual, selfishness uglifies the soul; for the human species, selfishness is extinction.\n\nIs this the doom written within our nature?\n\nIf we believe that humanity may transcend tooth & claw, if we believe divers races & creeds can share this world as peaceably as the orphans share their candlenut tree, if we believe leaders must be just, violence muzzled, power accountable & the riches of the Earth & its Oceans shared equitably, such a world will come to pass. I am not deceived. It is the hardest of worlds to make real. Torturous advances won over generations can be lost by a single stroke of a myopic president’s pen or a vainglorious general’s sword.",
      "language": "en",
      "character": null,
      "chapter": null,
      "chapter_parent": null,
      "page": 507,
      "verified": false,
      "original": null,
      "other_languages": [],
      "topics": [
        {
          "name": "history",
          "slug": "history",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history"
        },
        {
          "name": "selfishness",
          "slug": "selfishness",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/selfishness"
        },
        {
          "name": "beliefs",
          "slug": "beliefs",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/beliefs"
        }
      ],
      "source": {
        "name": "Wikiquote",
        "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Cloud_Atlas_(novel)#The_Pacific_Journal_of_Adam_Ewing_(Part_2)",
        "license": {
          "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0",
          "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"
        }
      },
      "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:03:57"
    },
    {
      "id": "8366d5dc-af08-40ec-bcaa-22e7c7296355",
      "slug": "another-war-is-always",
      "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/david-mitchell/cloud-atlas/another-war-is-always",
      "text": "Another war is always coming, Robert. They are never properly extinguished. What sparks war? The will to power, the backbone of human nature. The threat of violence, the fear of violence, or actual violence, is the instrument of this dreadful will… The nation state is merely human nature inflated to monstrous proportions. QES, nations are entities whose laws are written by violence. Thus it ever was, so ever shall it be.",
      "language": "en",
      "character": null,
      "chapter": null,
      "chapter_parent": null,
      "page": 444,
      "verified": false,
      "original": null,
      "other_languages": [],
      "topics": [
        {
          "name": "power",
          "slug": "power",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/power"
        },
        {
          "name": "war",
          "slug": "war",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/war"
        },
        {
          "name": "violence",
          "slug": "violence",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/violence"
        }
      ],
      "source": {
        "name": "Wikiquote",
        "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Cloud_Atlas_(novel)#Letters_from_Zedelghem_(Part_2)",
        "license": {
          "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0",
          "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"
        }
      },
      "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:03:57"
    },
    {
      "id": "7c68ec5a-7ebf-4c07-9836-09f6643df683",
      "slug": "oh-diplomacy-said",
      "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/david-mitchell/cloud-atlas/oh-diplomacy-said",
      "text": "\"Oh, diplomacy,\" said M.D., in his element, \"it mops up war’s spillages; legitimizes its outcomes; gives the strong state the means to impose its will on a weaker one, while saving its fleets and battalions for weightier opponents.\"",
      "language": "en",
      "character": null,
      "chapter": null,
      "chapter_parent": null,
      "page": 444,
      "verified": false,
      "original": null,
      "other_languages": [],
      "topics": [
        {
          "name": "war",
          "slug": "war",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/war"
        },
        {
          "name": "politics",
          "slug": "politics",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/politics"
        }
      ],
      "source": {
        "name": "Wikiquote",
        "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Cloud_Atlas_(novel)#Letters_from_Zedelghem_(Part_2)",
        "license": {
          "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0",
          "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"
        }
      },
      "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:03:57"
    }
  ]
}