Cynicism can blind one to subtler virtues
David Mitchell, Cloud Atlas.
“A half-read book is a half-finished love affair.”
“Three or four times only in my youth did I glimpse the Joyous Isles, before they were lost to fogs, depressions, cold fronts, ill winds, and contrary tides... I mistook them for adulthood. Assuming...”
“Peace, though beloved of our Lord, is a cardinal virtue only if your neighbors share your conscience.”
“Glass & peace alike betray proof of fragility under repeated blows.”
“I believe there is another world waiting for us. A better world. And I'll be waiting for you there.”
“Souls cross ages like clouds cross skies, an' tho' a cloud's shape nor hue nor size don't stay the same, it's still a cloud an' so is a soul. Who can say where the cloud's blowed from or who the so...”
“And once you've been to this Center, this Truth, you'll know your way everywhere. You are never lost again.”
“The Queen's Pride was his ship, and he loved her. (That was the way his sentences always went: It is raining today and I love you. My cold is better and I love you. Say hello to Horse and I love yo...”
“What Joab did not and could not know was that it was ego, and the ego of a king is just like the ego of anyone else. It is a social infection, entering each person as a psychological virus that is ...”