The perfect instrument

“My way of approaching Allah -may his name be praised- has been through calligraphy, and the search for the perfect meaning of each word. A single letter requires us to distill in it all the energy it contains, as if we were carving out its meaning. When sacred texts are written, they contain the soul of the man who served as an instrument to spread them throughout the world. And that doesn’t apply only to sacred texts, but to every mark we place on paper. Because the hand that draws each line reflects the soul of the person making that line.”

On Calligraphy from “The Witch of Portobello”

Cloud Atlas

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

“Our lives are not our own. We are bound to others, past and present, and by each crime and every kindness, we birth our future.”

“Books don’t offer real escape, but they can stop a mind scratching itself raw.”

“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.”

“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, Cloud Atlas