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 βCome 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, thatβs 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 journey is better than the inn".
Miguel De CervantesRead
Embrace your grief. For there, your soul will grow.
Carl JungRead
A great empire and little minds go ill together.
Edmund BurkeRead
I personally chose to go vegan because I educated myself on factory farming and cruelty to animals, and I suddenly realized that what was on my plate were living things, with feelings. And I just couldn't disconnect myself from it any longer. I read books like 'Diet for a New America' and saw documentaries like 'Earthlings' and 'Meet your Meat,' and it became an easy choice for me.
Ellen DegeneresRead
The natural flights of the human mind are not from pleasure to pleasure, but from hope to hope.
Samuel JohnsonRead
There is more than one kind of freedom," said Aunt Lydia. "Freedom to and freedom from. In the days of anarchy, it was freedom to. Now you are being given freedom from. Don't underrate it.
Margaret AtwoodRead