How we cite our quotes: (Part.Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
"The only answer can be 'There is no "Why."' This is our nature. 'Who' and 'What' run deeper than 'Why.'" (3.29.2)
We're still trying to understand this one. What's that, Yoda? Do or do not; there is no try? Okay, perhaps Alberto Grimaldi is saying that people are they way there, and that's all there is to it. Taking that into consideration, he's a shmuck, and that's all there is to it.
Quote #2
My mind fumbled with such enormity and dropped it; how could I understand such a limitless world? (5.1.158)
Sonmi is pretty open-minded. She allows for the fact that there are no absolute truths in this world, and we can never be certain of anything. Especially nutrition. We can't remember—is wheat good for us or not?
Quote #3
Corpocracy isn't just another political system that will come and go—corpocracy is the natural order, in harmony with human nature. (5.1.371)
Corpocracy may or may not be in harmony with human nature (what do you think?) but it's definitely not in harmony with nature-nature. How many times have they paved paradise to put up a parking lot?
Quote #4
I nearly spikered the turtle there'n'then out o' spite, see, if my life weren't fair why should an animal's be? But I seen its eyes, so ancient was its eyes they seen the future, yay, an' I let the turtle go. (6.1.84)
The animal lover in us (her name is Betty White) cringes to say this, but Zachry has a point, at first. People are senselessly murdered every day. Why should the life of a turtle be any different? But Zachry respects his elders, and no living thing's more elderly than a turtle. Still, is all life sacred, or only some life? Or none?
Quote #5
The life o' your tribe's got a nat'ral order. Catkin'd o' treaded on that scorpion fish if I'd been here or not. (6.1.147)
Meronym believes that the world has a natural rhythm—it gives life, and it takes it away. The circle of life. She doesn't think she should interfere, but Zachry convinces her otherwise. Poor Catkin ends up dead, anyway, later on, killed by the Kona. Hmm, looks like the natural world and fate are in cahoots...
Quote #6
Luisa has never even driven through this district and feels unsettled by the unknowability of cities. (9.59.4)
Luisa's trip through the slums recalls Sonmi's visiting the Huamdonggil, the toilet of life. In nature, you can be sure of things. You can be sure there are trees, sure there are animals, sure a bear might eat you, but in cities, people are doing nefarious things all the time that shock us—like taking bath salts and eating people.
Quote #7
"Our will to power, our science, and those v. faculties that elevated us from apes, to savages, to modern man, are the same faculties that'll snuff out Homo sapiens before this century [the 20th] is out." (10.1.19)
Morty Dhondt has a pretty shrewd vision of this future, as this is exactly what happens by Zachry's time. Hindsight, foresight, or whatever kind of sight this is in Cloud Atlas's time-twisted narrative is always 20/20.
Quote #8
People are obscenities. (10.8.9)
This is quite a change from Frobisher's earlier statement that "people are complicated" (2.1.40). From his short life experience, he believes he's figured out why people are complicated—they're all just really, really terrible.
Quote #9
"Our love—or rather our rapacity—for treasure, gold, spices & dominion, oh, most of all, sweet dominion, is the keenest, the hungriest, the most unscrupulous! This rapacity, yes, powers our Progress; for ends infernal or divine I know not." (11.2.43)
"Rapacity" is a good word choice here. It makes us think of both "rape" and "rapture," two words that can apply to both sides of the same issue. Are we raping the planet with our greed, or are we working toward paradise?