Quote #16

'If we believe that humanity can transcend tooth and claw, if we believe that 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. I am not deceived. It is the hardest of worlds to make real. Tortuous advances won over generations can be lost by a single stroke of a myopic president's pen or a vainglorious general's sword. // A life spent shaping a world I want Jackson to inherit, not one I fear Jackson shall inherit, this strikes me as a life worth the living:' (p.528)

More from David Mitchell

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  2. 'I hear my father-in-law's response: 'Naive, dreaming Adam. He who would do battle with the many-headed hydra of human nature must pay a wo…
  3. 'History has no rules, only outcomes. What precipitates outcomes? Vicious acts and virtuous acts. What precipitates acts? Belief.' ?( p.528)
  4. 'Science devises ever bloodier means of war until humanity's powers of destruction overcome our powers of creation, and our civilisation dr…
  5. 'Diplomacy: it mops up war's spillages; legitimises its outcomes; gives the strong state the means to impose its will on a weaker one, whil…
  6. 'Another war is always coming: They are never properly extinguished. What sparks war? The will to power, the backbone of human nature. The …
  7. 'Yay, Old'uns' Smart mastered sicks, miles, seeds and made miracles ord'nary, but it din't master one thing, nay, a hunger in the hearts of…
  8. 'Under the Enrichment Laws, consumers have to spend a fixed quota of dollars each month, depending on their strata. Hoarding is an anti-cor…

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