# Quote — David Mitchell, Cloud Atlas

> We–by whom I mean anyone over sixty—commit two offenses just by existing. One is Lack of Velocity. We drive too slowly, walk too slowly, talk too slowly. The world will do business with dictators, perverts, and drugs barons of all stripes, but being slowed down it cannot abide. Our second offense is being Everyman's memento mori. The world can only get comfy in shiny-eyed denial if we are out of sight.

- Author: [David Mitchell](https://www.leafyquotes.com/david-mitchell.md)
- Book: [Cloud Atlas](https://www.leafyquotes.com/david-mitchell/cloud-atlas.md)
- Page: 360
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Cloud_Atlas_(novel)#The_Ghastly_Ordeal_of_Timothy_Cavendish_(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/we-by-whom-i-mean

## 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)