Yann Martel citations

Page 3

“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.”

“As for hearing, the sloth is not so much deaf as uninterested in sound.”

“My gratitude to him is as boundless as the Pacific ocean.”

“I must say a word about fear. It is life's only true opponent. Only fear can defeat life.”

“Faith in God is an opening up, a letting go, a deep trust, a free act of love.”

“First wonder goes deepest; wonder after that fits in the impression made by the first.”

“I explore it now in the only place left for it, my memory.”

“know what you want. You want a story that won’t surprise you. That will confirm what you already know. That won’t make you see higher or further or differently.”

“I cannot think of a better way to spread the faith. No thundering from a pulpit, no condemnation from bad churches, no peer pressure, just a book of scripture quietly waiting to say hello, as gentle and powerful as a little girl's kiss on your cheek.”

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

“A work of art works because it is true, not because it is real.”

“It's amazing how willpower can build walls.”

“.. the most dangerous animal in a zoo is Man.”

“Stories--individual stories, family stories, national stories--are what stitch together the disparate elements of human existence into a coherent whole. We are story animals.”

“It was as unbelievable as the moon catching fire.”

“If you take two steps towards God,' he used to tell me, 'God runs to you!”

“Don’t worry about being good…. Aspire to be authentic.”

“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." Page 316”

“A house is a compressed territory where our basic needs can be fulfilled close by and safely.”

“Slice a pear and you will find that its flesh is incandescent white. It glows with inner light. Those who carry a knife and a pear are never afraid of the dark.”

“To choose doubt as a philosophy of life is akin to choosing immobility as a means of transportation.”

“science can only take you so far and then you have to leap”

“Blessed be shock. Blessed be the part of us that protects us from too much pain and sorrow. At the heart of life is a fusebox.”

“The moon was a sharply defined crescent and the sky was perfectly clear. The stars shone with such fierce, contained brilliance that it seemed absurd to call the night dark.”

“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.”

“Atheists are my brothers and sisters of a different faith, and every word they speak speaks of faith. Like me, they go as far as the legs of reason will carry them -- and then they leap.”

“To me, religion is about our dignity, not our depravity.”

“Christianity is a religion in a rush.”

“The worst pair of opposites is boredom and terror. Sometimes your life is a pendulum swing from one to the other.”

“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.”