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“Oh, diplomacy," said M.D., in his element, "it mops up war's spillages; legitimizes its outcomes; gives the strong state the means to impose its will on a weaker one, while saving its fleets and battalions for weightier opponents.”
― Cloud Atlas
― Cloud Atlas
“You have always been the worst of my children," he said. "Be sure not to dishonor me."
"I have a better idea. I will do as I please, and when you count your children, leave me out.”
― Circe
"I have a better idea. I will do as I please, and when you count your children, leave me out.”
― Circe
“Another war is always coming, Robert. They are never properly extinguished. What sparks wars? The will to power, the backbone of human nature. The threat of violence, the fear of violence, or actual violence, is the instrument of this dreadful will. You can see the will to power in bedrooms, kitchens, factories, unions and the borders of states. Listen to this and remember it. The nation-state is merely human nature inflated to monstrous proportions. QED, nations are entities whose laws are written by violence. Thus it ever was, so ever shall it be.”
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“What if . . . what if heaven is real, but only in moments? Like a glass of water on a hot day when you're dying of thirst, or when someone's nice to your for no reason, or . . . ' Mam's pancakes with Mars Bar sauce; Dad dashing up from the bar just to tell me, 'Sleep tight don't let the bedbugs bite'; or Jacko and Sharon singing "For She's a Squishy Marshmallow' instead of 'For She's A Jolly Good Fellow' every single birthday and wetting themselves even though it's not at all funny; and Brendan giving his old record player to me instead of one of his mates. "S'pose heaven's not like a painting that's just hanging there forever, but more like . . . like the best song anyone ever wrote, but a song you only catch in snatches, while you're alive, from passing cars, or . . . upstairs windows when you're lost . . .”
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“But if you knew about this…conspiracy, why did you cooperate with it? Why did you allow Hae-Joo Im to get so close to you?
Why does any martyr cooperate with his judases?
Tell me.
We see a game beyond the endgame…
But to what end? Some future…revolution? It can never succeed.
As Seneca warned Nero: No matter how many of us you kill, you will never kill your successor.”
― Cloud Atlas
Why does any martyr cooperate with his judases?
Tell me.
We see a game beyond the endgame…
But to what end? Some future…revolution? It can never succeed.
As Seneca warned Nero: No matter how many of us you kill, you will never kill your successor.”
― Cloud Atlas
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