David Mitchell Quotes - Page 6

Quotes about:

• over 85% of all statistics are made up on the spot.

  David Mitchell

  Funny, Humor, Statistics

  7 Copy quote

• Folks with most to complain about seldom complain most.

  David Mitchell

  Complaining, Folks

  David Mitchell (2007). “Ghostwritten”, p.350, Vintage

  4 Copy quote

• Spent the fortnight gone in the music room reworking my year's fragments into a 'sextet for overlapping soloists': piano, clarinet, 'cello, flute, oboe, and violin, each in its own language of key, scale, and color. In the first set, each solo is interrupted by its successor; in the second, each interruption is recontinued, in order. Revolutionary or gimmicky? Shan't know until it's finished, and by then it'll be too late.

  David Mitchell

  Keys, Order, Color

  David Mitchell (2008). “Cloud Atlas: A Novel”, p.445, Random House

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• I...asked why purebloods despised me so. He replied, 'What if the difference between social strata stem not from genomics or inherent xcellence or even dollars, but merely differences in knowledge? Would this not mean the whole Pyramid is built on shifting sands?... fabricants are mirrors held up to purebloods' consciences; what purebloods see reflected there sickens them. So they blame you for holding up the mirror

  David Mitchell

  Mean, Mirrors, Pyramids

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• Humans live in a pit of cheating, exploiting, hurting, incarcerating. Every time, the species wastes some part of what it could be. This waste is poisonous.

  David Mitchell

  Cheating, Hurt, Pits

  David Mitchell (2007). “Ghostwritten”, p.163, Vintage

  5 Copy quote

• The weak are meat the strong do eat.

  David Mitchell

  Strong, Meat, Weak

  David Mitchell (2012). “Cloud Atlas (Enhanced Movie Tie-in Edition): A Novel”, p.501, Random House Group

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• I have always unswervingly held, that God, in our civilizing world, manifests Himself not in the miracles of biblical age, but in progress. It is progress that leads humanity up the ladder towards the God-head. No Jacob's ladder this, no, but rather Civilization's Ladder, if you will.

  David Mitchell

  Biblical, Civilization, Miracle

  David Mitchell (2008). “Cloud Atlas: A Novel”, p.487, Random House

  4 Copy quote

• Teachers're always using that "in your own words." I hate that. Authors knit their sentences tight. It's their job. Why make us unpick them, just to put it back together more shonkily? How're you s'posed to say Kapellmeister if you can't say Kapellmeister?

  David Mitchell

  Teacher, Jobs, Hate

  4 Copy quote

• Probably" is a word with an emergency ejector seat.

  David Mitchell

  Emergencies, Seats

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• The world never stops unmaking what the world never stops making. But who says the world has to make sense?

  David Mitchell

  World, Make Sense

  4 Copy quote

• People pontificate, "Suicide is selfishness." Career churchmen like Pater go a step further and call in a cowardly assault on the living. Oafs argue this specious line for varying reason: to evade fingers of blame, to impress one's audience with one's mental fiber, to vent anger, or just because one lacks the necessary suffering to sympathize. Cowardice is nothing to do with it - suicide takes considerable courage. Japanese have the right idea. No, what's selfish is to demand another to endure an intolerable existence, just to spare families, friends, and enemies a bit of soul-searching.

  David Mitchell

  Suicide, Selfish, Careers

  4 Copy quote

• Eva. Every day I've climbed up the belfry chanting a lucky chant at one syllable per beat, "To-day-to-day-let-her-be-here-to-day-to-day.

  David Mitchell

  Lucky, Beats, Chanting

  4 Copy quote

• If we believe that humanity may transcend tooth and claw, if we believe divers races & creeds can share this world as peaceably as the orphans share their candlenut tree, if we believe leaders must be just, violence muzzled, power accountable & the riches of the Earth & its Oceans shared equitably, such a world will come to pass.

  David Mitchell

  Believe, Ocean, Race

  4 Copy quote

• Why does any martyr cooperate with his judases?...We see a game beyond the endgame...As Seneca warned Nero: No matter how many of us you kill, you will never kill your successor.

  David Mitchell

  Games, Doe, Nero

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• The music provokes a sharp longing the music soothes.

  David Mitchell

  Longing, Provoking

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• Why fight the 'natural' (oh, weaselly word!) order of things? Why? Because of this--one fine day, a purely predatory world shall consume itself. In an individual, selfishness uglifies the soul; for the human species, selfishness is extinction.

  David Mitchell

  Fighting, Order, Soul

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• One cannot pass by without thinking of the density of men in the ground.

  David Mitchell

  Men, Thinking, Density

  David Mitchell (2008). “Cloud Atlas: A Novel”, p.440, Random House

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• We are only what we know, and I wished to be so much more than I was, sorely.

  David Mitchell

  Knows

  David Mitchell (2008). “Cloud Atlas: A Novel”, p.208, Random House

  4 Copy quote

• Whoever opined "Money can't buy you happiness" obviously had far too much of the stuff.

  David Mitchell

  Stuff, Too Much

  David Mitchell (2012). “Cloud Atlas (Enhanced Movie Tie-in Edition): A Novel”, p.80, Random House Group

  4 Copy quote

• Faith, the least exclusive club on Earth, has the craftiest doorman.

  David Mitchell

  Earth, Clubs, Exclusive

  David Mitchell (2012). “Cloud Atlas (Enhanced Movie Tie-in Edition): A Novel”, p.80, Random House Group

  4 Copy quote

• The rain's innumerable hooves spatter on the streets and roofs.

  David Mitchell

  Rain, Roof, Streets

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• When insolvent, pack minimally, with a valise tough enough to be thrown onto a London pavement from a first- or second-floor window. Insist on hotel rooms no higher.

  David Mitchell

  London, Pavement, Rooms

  David Mitchell (2008). “Cloud Atlas: A Novel”, p.44, Random House

  4 Copy quote

• For white men, to live is to own, or to try to own more, or to die trying to own more. Their appetites are astonishing! They own wardrobes, slaves, carriages, houses, warehouses, and ships. They own ports, cities, plantations, valleys, mountains, chains of islands. They own this world, its jungles, its skies, and its seas. Yet they complain that Dejima is a prison. They complain they are not free.

  David Mitchell

  Men, White Man, Sea

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• The song instantly insisted it'd never existed.

  David Mitchell

  Song

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• So little is actually worthy of belief or disbelief. Better to strive to coexist than seek to disapprove . . .

  David Mitchell

  Littles, Belief, Strive

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