# Quote — J. M. Coetzee, Waiting for the Barbarians

> It would be best if this obscure chapter in the history of the world were terminated at once, if these ugly people were obliterated from the face of the earth and we swore to make a new start, to run an empire in which there would be no more injustice, no more pain.

- Author: [J. M. Coetzee](https://www.leafyquotes.com/j-m-coetzee.md)
- Book: [Waiting for the Barbarians](https://www.leafyquotes.com/j-m-coetzee/waiting-for-the-barbarians.md)
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/J._M._Coetzee#Waiting_for_the_Barbarians_(1980)) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/j-m-coetzee/waiting-for-the-barbarians/it-would-be-best

## More from this book

> How can I accept that disaster has overtaken my life when the world continues to move so tranquilly through its cycles?

p. 102 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/j-m-coetzee/waiting-for-the-barbarians/how-can-i-accept.md)

> Truly, man was not made to live alone!

p. 87 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/j-m-coetzee/waiting-for-the-barbarians/truly-man-was.md)

> It is the knowledge of how contingent my unease is, how dependent on a baby that wails beneath my window one day and does not wail the next, that brings the worst shame to me, the greatest indifference to annihilation.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/j-m-coetzee/waiting-for-the-barbarians/it-is-the.md)