You can't quantify human pain the way you can measure out sugar. Death comes one individual at a time.
Yann MartelRead
Sometimes I got my majors mixed up. A number of my fellow religious-studies students - muddled agnostics who didn't know which way was up, who were in the thrall of reason, that fool's gold for the bright - reminded me of the three-toed sloth; and the three-toed sloth, such a beautiful example of the miracle of life, reminded me of God.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote reflects on the confusion between faith and reason, likening the beauty of life to a divine presence.
Yann Martel's quote examines the relationship between reason, faith, and the natural world, suggesting that those who engage with philosophy and religious studies may sometimes lose clarity regarding their beliefs. The imagery of the three-toed sloth, a creature representing the beauty and complexity of life, serves as a reminder of the existence of a higher power, challenging us to consider how we perceive both the divine and the natural world around us.
Themes
FaithReasonBeautyLifeDivinity
In practice
Example use cases
This quote is perfect for a discussion on the balance between faith and logic in a philosophy class.
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
I was obsessed with not knowing what happened after you were dead. And I sat or kneeled for a whole day with my head against the wall, trying to figure it out. But I couldn't, and I just said, 'Okay.' And then it was nothingness.
Donald SutherlandRead
Is Wagner a human being at all? Is he not rather a disease? He contaminates everything he touches - he has made music sick.
Friedrich NietzscheRead
In some departments of our daily life, in which we imagine ourselves free agents, we are ruled by dictators exercising great power.
Edward BernaysRead
Then when dusk began to settle he would retrace his steps, back to his own world. And on the way home, a loneliness would always claim his heart. He could never quite get a grip on what it was. It just seemed that whatever lay waiting "out there" was all too vast, too overwhelming for him to possibly ever make a dent in.
Haruki MurakamiRead
My idea of magic doesn't have much to do with stage tricks and illusions. The whole world abounds in magic.
Michael JacksonRead
Sooner or later, if man is ever to be worthy of his destiny, we must fill our hearts with tolerance.
Stan LeeRead