You can't quantify human pain the way you can measure out sugar. Death comes one individual at a time.
Yann MartelRead
The lower you are, the higher your mind will want to soar. It was natural that, bereft and desperate as I was, in the throes of unremitting suffering. I should turn to God
Interpretation
What this quote means
In times of deep despair, our thoughts and aspirations often reach for a higher purpose or understanding.
This quote reflects the idea that during our lowest moments, when we feel most lost and suffering, it is natural for our minds to seek elevation and hope. In the face of desperation, individuals may turn to spirituality or a higher power as a source of solace and inspiration, suggesting that pain can lead to a quest for deeper meaning in life.
Themes
SufferingHopeSpiritualityDesperationElevation
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about resilience, one might say, 'Remember, the lower you are, the higher your mind will want to soar.'
More from Yann Martel
All quotes →Come aboard if your destination is oblivion- it should be our next stop. We can sit together. You can have the window seat if you want. But it's a sad view.
Yann MartelRead
Fiction and nonfiction are not so easily divided. Fiction may not be real, but it's true; it goes beyond the garland of facts to get to emotional and psychological truths.
Yann MartelRead
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.
Yann MartelRead
I thought they were helping me. I was so full of trust in them that I felt grateful as they carried me in the air. Only when they threw me overboard did I begin to have doubts.
Yann MartelRead
Art is a gift: you create and then you give away. How readers receive that gift is their business. If they hate it, that’s their response to it. Others respond by liking it. Either way, that is their interaction with the book, which is no longer mine.
Yann MartelRead
Similar quotes
The sword the body wounds, sharp words the mind.
MenanderRead
I have great respect for the past. If you don't know where you've come from, you don't know where you're going. I have respect for the past, but I'm a person of the moment. I'm here, and I do my best to be completely centered at the place I'm at, then I go forward to the next place.
Maya AngelouRead
Meetings should be like salt - a spice sprinkled carefully to enhance a dish, not poured recklessly over every forkful. Too much salt destroys a dish. Too many meetings destroy morale and motivation.
Jason FriedRead
Time can bring you down, time can bend your knees.
Eric ClaptonRead
I'll tell them that on bad mornings, it feels impossible to take pleasure in anything because I'm afraid it could be taken away.
Suzanne CollinsRead
This age thinks better of a gilded fool Than of a threadbare saint in wisdom's school.
Thomas DekkerRead