Yann Martel

“Gloom is but a shadow of a cloud passing by”

“I was more afraid that in a few words thrown out he might destroy something that I loved. What if his words had the effect of polio on me? What a terrible disease that must be if it could kill God in a man.”

“Only death consistently excites your emotions, whether contemplating when life is safe and stale, or fleeing it when life is threatened and precious”

“What a terrible disease that must be if it could kill God in a man.”

“This story has a happy ending.”

“Bapu Gandhi said, ‘All religions are true.’ I just want to love God.”

“Und dann war da die Frau, der ein Löwe den Sari auszog. Sie drehte sich wie ein Jojo, denn dem tödlichen Ende zog sie die tödliche Schande dann doch vor. [...] Verletzt wurde sie nicht; zahlreiche Männer eilten begeistert zu Hilfe.”

“Mockery be damned, my urine looked delicious.”

“You see these guinea pigs? Well... they'er not dangerous.”

“Another favorite position of his was sitting with his back to me, his rear half resting on the floor of the boat and his front half on the bench, his face buried into the stern, paws right next to his head, looking as if we were playing hide-and-seek and he were the one counting. In this position he tended to lie very still, with only the occasional twitching of his ears to indicate that he is not necessarily sleeping.”

“How long does it take for a broken spirit to kill a body that has food, water and shelter?”

“Quickly you make rash decisions. You dismiss your last allies: hope and trust. There, you've defeated yourself. Fear, which is but an impression, has triumphed over you.”

“The precept that location is key to the success of a business applies to art, and even to life itself: we thrive or wither depending on how nourishing our environment is.”

“I have read that there are two fears that cannot be trained out of us: the startle reaction upon hearing an unexpected noise, and vertigo. I would like to add a third, to wit, the rapid and direct approch of a known killer”

“...and, to the very end, lack imagination and miss the better story.”

“I don't mean to defend zoos. Close them all down if you want (and let us hope that what wildlife remains can survive in what is left of the natural world). I know zoos are no longer in people's good graces. Religion faces the same problem. Certain illusion about freedom plague them both.”

“The truth of life is that Brahman is no different from atman, the spiritual force within us, what you might call the soul.”

“Much hostile and aggressive behaviour among animals is the expression of social insecurity.”

“Time is an illusion that makes us all pant.”

“We fight no matter the cost of battle, the losses we take, the improbability of success. We fight to the very end. It is not the question of courage. It is something constitutional, an ability to let go. It maybe nothing more than life-hungry stupidity.”

“I concluded, that it was not a dream or a delusion or a misplaced memory or a fancy or any other falsity, but a solid, true thing witnessed while in a weakened highly agitated state.”

“Because of the gnawing feeling that no matter how hard they work their efforts will yield nothing, that what they build up in one year will be torn down in one day by others.”

“If you don't let technology help you, if you resist good ideas, you condemn yourself to dinosaurhood.”

“A germ of religious exaltation, no bigger than a mustard seed.”

“You may not believe in life, but I don't believe in death. ... The reason death sticks so closely to life isn't biological necessity--it's envy. Life is so beautiful that death has fallen in love with it, a jealous, possessive love that grabs at what it can. But life leaps over oblivion lightly, losing only a thing or two of no importance, and gloom is but the passing shadow of a cloud.”

“I was not wounded in any part of my body, but I had never experienced such intense pain, such a ripping of the nerves, such an ache of the heart.”

“...fear...is life's only true opponent. Only fear can defeat life...you must fight hard to express it. You must fight hard to shine the light of words upon it. Because if you don't, if your fear becomes a wordless darkness that you avoid, perhaps even manage to forget, you open yourself to further attacks of fear because you never truly fought the opponent who defeated you.”

“...the Greater Good and the Greater Profit are not compatible aims...”

“...Like me, they go as far as the legs of reason will carry them-and then they leap.I'll be honest about it. It is not atheists who get stuck in my craw, but agnostics. Doubt is useful for a while. We must all pass through the garden of Gethsemene. If Christ played with doubt, so must we.If Christ spent an anguished night in prayer, if He burst out from the cross, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" then surely we are also permitted doubt. But we must move on. To choose doubt as a philosophy of life is akin to choosing immobility as a means of transportation”

“Was it the forgetfulness of old age or personal incapacity that made the man able to say please but not thank you?”

“Ensuite, la peur se tourne vers votre corps, qui sent déjà que quelque chose de terrible et de mauvais est entrain de survenir. Déjà, votre souffle s'est envolé comme un oiseau et votre cran a fui en rampant comme un serpent. Maintenant, vous avez la langue qui s'affale comme un opossum, tandis que votre mâchoire commence à galoper sur place. Vos oreilles n'entendent plus. Vos muscles se mettent à trembler comme si vous aviez la malaria et vos genoux à frémir comme si vous dansiez. Votre coeur pompe follement, tandis que votre sphincter se relâche. Il en va ainsi de tout le reste de votre corps. Chaque partie de vous, à sa manière, perd ses moyens. Il n'y a que vos yeux à bien fonctionner. Ils prêtent toujours pleine attention à la peur.Vous prenez rapidement des décisions irréfléchies. Vous abandonnez vos derniers alliés: l'espoir et la confiance. Voilà que vous vous êtes défait vous-même. La peur, qui n'est qu'une impression, a triomphé de vous.Cette expérience est difficile à exprimer. Car la peur, la véritable peur, celle qui vous ébranle jusqu'au plus profond de vous, celle que vous ressentez au moment où vous êtes face à votre destin final, se blottit insidieusement dans votre mémoire, comme une gangrène: elle cherche à tout pourrir, même les mots pour parler d'elle. Vous devez donc vous battre très fort pour l'appeler par son nom. Il faut que vous luttiez durement pour braquer la lumière des mots sur elle. Car si vous ne le faites pas, si la peur devient une noirceur indicible que vous évitez, que vous parvenez peut-être même à oublier, vous vous exposez à d'autres attaques de peur parce que vous n'aurez jamais vraiment bataillé contre l'ennemi qui vous a défait.”

“Je dois dire un mot sur la peur. C'est le seul adversaire réel de la vie. Il n'y a que la peur qui puisse vaincre la vie. C'est une ennemie habile et perfide, et je le sais bien. Elle n'a aucune décence, ne respecte ni lois ni conventions, ne manifeste aucune clémence. Elle attaque votre point le plus faible, qu'elle trouve avec une facilité déconcertante. Elle naît d'abord et invariablement dans votre esprit. Un moment vous vous sentez calme, en plein contrôle, heureux. Puis la peur, déguisée en léger doute, s'immisce dans votre pensée comme un espion. Ce léger doute rencontre l'incrédulité et celle-ci tente de le repousser. Mais l'incrédulité est un simple fantassin. Le doute s'en débarrasse sans se donner de mal. Vous devenez inquiet. La raison vient à votre rescousse. Vous êtes rassuré. La raison dispose de tous les instruments de pointe de la technologie moderne. Mais, à votre surprise et malgré des tactiques supérieures et un nombre impressionnant de victoires, la raison est mise K.- O. Vous sentez que vous vous affaiblissez, que vous hésitez. Votre inquiétude devient frayeur.”

“If you don't have dreams, how do you maneuver reality? Where do you get the ideas to change reality if not from dreams?”

“I should not count on outside help. Survival had to start with me.”

“Why can we throw a question further than we can pull in an answer?”

“Reason is my prophet and it tells me that as a watch stops, so we die. It’s the end. If the watch doesn’t work properly, it must be fixed here and now by us.”

“Kalau nyawa kita sendiri terancam, kemampuan kita berempati jadi tumpul oleh hasrat egois yang amat sangat untuk bertahan hidup.”

“But I don't insist. I don't mean to defend zoos. Close them all down if you want (and let us hope that what wildlife remains can survive in what is left of the natural world). I know zoos are no longer in people's good graces. Religion faces the same problem. Certain illusions about freedom plague them both.”

“Of hunger and thirst, thirst is the greater imperative.”

“I am magical: I can bleed for five days and not die.”

“Things didn't turn out the way they're supposed to, but what can you do? You must take life the way it comes at you and make the best of it.”

“I have a fierce will to live. Others fight a little, then lose hope. Still others - and I am one of those - never give up. We fight and fight and fight. We fight no matter the cost of battle, the losses we take, the improbability of success. We fight to the very end.”

“And so, in that Greek letter that looks like a shack with a corrugated tin roof, in that elusive, irrational number with which scientists try to understand the universe, I found refuge.”

“Kalau begitu, apa gunanya punya akal, Richard Parker?Apakah sekadar untuk memenuhi kebutuhan sehari-hari —- mencari makanan, pakaian, dan atap untuk berteduh?Kenapa akal tak bisa memberikan jawaban-jawaban yang lebih kompleks?Kenapa kita bisa menanyakan hal yang tak ada jawabannya?Buat apa punya jala begitu besar kalau sedikit sekali ikan yang bisa ditangkap?”

“Cinta sulit dipercaya, tanyakan pada siapapun yang sedang jatuh cinta.Kehidupan ini juga sulit dipercaya, tanyakan pada ilmuwan manapun.Tuhan juga sulit dipercaya, tanyakan pada siapapun yang memercayainya.Kenapa Anda tidak menerima hal-hal yang sulit dipercaya?”

“Seperti perpustakaan umum, atau museum, kebun binatang bertujuan melayani bidang pendidikan populer serta ilmu pengetahuan.”

“Hijau adalah warna yang indah. Warna Islam. Warna kesukaanku.”

“Antara mencari untung dan melayani masyarakat tidak bisa seiring-sejalan.”

“Nil magnum nisi bonum. Tak ada kemuliaan tanpa kebajikan.”

“Kita tentunya juga diperbolehkan merasa ragu. Tapi kita mesti jalan terus. Memilih keraguan sebagai falsafah hidup sama halnya memilih kemandekan sebagai sarana transportasi.”