We are all born like Catholics, aren’t we—in limbo, without religion, until some figure introduces us to God?
YANN MARTELReligion is just an alternate way of reading reality – you read material reality, and then you add on an extra layer of religiosity that deepens that understanding of reality. Some countries have lost that capacity, or dismissed it or marginalized it.
More Yann Martel Quotes
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To lose a brother is to lose someone with whom you can share the experience of growing old, who is supposed to bring you a sister-in-law and nieces and nephews, creatures who people the tree of your life and give it new branches.
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I have nothing to say of my working life, only that a tie is a noose, and inverted though it is, it will hang a man nonetheless if he’s not careful.
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Repetition is important in the training not only of animals but also of humans.
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Survival starts by paying attention to what is close at hand and immediate. To look out with idle hope is tantamount to dreaming one’s life away.
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There are always those who take it upon themselves to defend God… These people fail to realize that it is on the inside that God must be defended, not on the outside.
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…for everything has a trace of the divine in it.
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I would have like PI to be a Jew, too, to practice Judaism, but there are two religions that are explicitly incompatible: Christianity and Judaism. Where one begins, the other ends, according to Christians, and where one endures, the other strays, according to Jews.
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It’s important in life to conclude things properly. Only then can you let go. Otherwise you are left with words you should have said but never did, and your heart is heavy with remorse.
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Why make dirty what is beautiful, spoil what is perfect? Love.
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Artists invent things as a way of telling the truth.
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I find that movies tend to fix the aesthetics of a story in people’s minds.
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First wonder goes deepest; wonder after that fits in the impression made by the first.
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You might think I lost all hope at that point. I did. And as a result I perked up and felt much better.
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If you stumble about believability, what are you living for? Love is hard to believe, ask any lover. Life is hard to believe, ask any scientist. God is hard to believe, ask any believer. What is your problem with hard to believe?
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Everything was screaming: the sea, the wind, my heart.
YANN MARTEL