"Another war is always coming, Robert. They are never properly extinguished. What sparks war? 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… The nation state is merely human nature inflated to monstrous proportions. QES, nations are entities whose laws are written by violence. Thus it ever was, so ever shall it be."

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Added on April 10, 2026
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Original Language: English

Sources

"Letters from Zedelghem", p. 444

https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Cloud_Atlas_(novel)