# Quote — David Mitchell, Cloud Atlas

> "You would think a place the size of England could easily hold all the happenings in one humble lifetime without much overlap–I mean, it's not ruddy Luxembourg we live in–but no, we cross, crisscross, and recross our old tracks like figure skaters."

- Author: [David Mitchell](https://www.leafyquotes.com/david-mitchell.md)
- Book: [Cloud Atlas](https://www.leafyquotes.com/david-mitchell/cloud-atlas.md)
- Page: 163
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Cloud_Atlas_(novel)#The_Ghastly_Ordeal_of_Timothy_Cavendish_(Part_1)) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/david-mitchell/cloud-atlas/you-would-think

## 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)