We had yet to learn that the Devil created youth so that we could make our mistakes, and that God established maturity and old age so that we could pay for them.
Do you know what religion is, Martin, my friend? -I can barely remember Lord's Prayer. -A beautiful and well-crafted prayer. Poetry aside, a religion is really a moral code that is expressed through legends,myths, or any type of literary device in order to establish a system of beliefs, values , and rules with which to regulate a culture or a society.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Religion serves as a moral framework expressed through stories and literature that guide a culture's values.
In this quote, Carlos Ruiz Zafón reflects on the essence of religion, emphasizing that beyond its poetic aspects, religion functions primarily as a moral code articulated through narratives. These narratives, whether they be legends or myths, establish a framework of beliefs and values that help shape and regulate the behavior of a culture or society, underscoring the significance of storytelling in conveying moral principles.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about the role of storytelling in society, this quote can illustrate the deeper significance of religious narratives.
More from Carlos Ruiz Zafon
All quotes →The haunting of history is ever present in Barcelona. I see cities as organisms, as living creatures. To me, Madrid is a man and Barcelona is a woman. And it's a woman who's extremely vain.
I think today will be the day. Today our luck will change,' I proclaimed on the wings of the first coffee of the day, pure optimism in a liquid state.
We spend a good part of our lives dreaming, especially when we're awake.
Destiny is usually just around the corner. Like a thief, a hooker, or a lottery vendor: its three most common personifications. But what destiny does not do is home visits. You have to go for it.
Destiny doesn't do home visits... you have to go for it yourself.
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The true test of civilization is not the census, nor the size of cities, nor the crops - no, but the kind of man the country turns out.
There is no heaven or afterlife for broken down computers; that is a fairy story for people afraid of the dark.
The other salient characteristic of the Declaration is its universality: it applies to all human beings without any discrimination whatever; it also applies to all territories, whatever their economic or political regime.
Since inequalities of privilege are greater than could possibly be defended rationally, the intelligence of privileged groups is usually applied to the task of inventing specious proofs for the theory that universal values spring from, and that general interests are served by, the special privileges which they hold.
A man's physical hunger does not prove that man will get any bread; he may die of starvation on a raft in the Atlantic. But surely a man's hunger does prove that he comes of a race which repairs its body by eating and inhabits a world where eatable substances exist. In the same way, though I do not believe (I wish I did) that my desire for Paradise proves that I shall enjoy it, I think it a pretty good indication that such a thing exists and that some men will.
We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful what we pretend to be.