Cloud Atlas

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David Mitchell explores in brilliantly original fiction the fundamental questions of reality and identity.

Favorite quotes from the book:

Peace, though beloved of our Lord, is a cardinal virtue only if your neighbours share your conscience.

If people praise you, you’re not walking your own path.

Anything is true if enough people believe it is.

… my dreams are the single unpredictable factor in my zoned days and nights. Nobody allots them, or censors them. Dreams are all I have ever truly owned.

What was all this knowledge for, I would ask myself, if I could not use it to better my existence?

Time is what stops history happening at once; time is the speed at which the past disappears.

My life amounts to no more than one drop in a limitless ocean. Yet what is any ocean, but a multitude of drops?

You say you’re “depressed” - all I see is resilience. You are allowed to feel messed up and inside out. It doesn’t mean you’re defective - it just means you’re human.