# Quote — David Mitchell, Cloud Atlas

> [...] 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.

- Author: [David Mitchell](https://www.leafyquotes.com/david-mitchell.md)
- Book: [Cloud Atlas](https://www.leafyquotes.com/david-mitchell/cloud-atlas.md)
- Page: 489
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Cloud_Atlas_(novel)#The_Pacific_Journal_of_Adam_Ewing_(Part_2)) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/david-mitchell/cloud-atlas/of-all-the

## More from this book

> "And if you threaten my reputation, oh well, I'll have to ruin yours!"

p. 76 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/david-mitchell/cloud-atlas/and-if-you.md)

> 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!"
>
> Yet what is any ocean but a multitude of drops?

p. 508 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/david-mitchell/cloud-atlas/i-hear-my-father-in-laws.md)

> Books don't offer real escape but they can stop a mind scratching itself raw.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/david-mitchell/cloud-atlas/books-dont-offer.md)