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26b0cc4
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It is pointless to say that this or that night was the worst of my life. I have so many bad nights to choose from that I've made none the champion.
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Yann Martel |
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edc2f2b
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Things didn't turn out the way they're supposed to, but what can you do? You must take life the way it comes at you and make the best of it.
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Yann Martel |
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2cd1c1b
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Life on a lifeboat isn't much of a life. It is like an end game in chess, a game with few pieces. The elements couldn't be more simple, nor the stakes higher.
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Yann Martel |
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ec14c22
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Even when God seemed to have abandoned me, he was watching. Even when he seemed indifferent to my suffering, he was watching. And when I was beyond all hope of saving, he gave me rest. Then he gave me a sign to continue my journey.
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religion
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Yann Martel |
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c33c215
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Why can't reason give greater answers? Why can we throw a question further than we can pull in an answer? Why such a vast net if there's so little fish to catch?
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Yann Martel |
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34533af
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Faith in God is an opening up, a letting go, a deept trust, a free act of love- but sometimes it was so hard to love. Sometimes my heart was sinking so fast with anger, desolation and weariness, I was afraid it would sink to the very bottom of the Pacific and I would not be able to lift it back up. At such moments I tried to elevate myself. I would touch the turban I had made with the remnants of my shirt and I would say aloud, "THIS IS GOD..
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Yann Martel |
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5562ca8
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We commonly say in the trade that the most dangerous animal in a zoo is Man.
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Yann Martel |
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d68d81d
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My suffering left me sad and gloomy.
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Yann Martel |
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fbac23d
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There are always those who take it upon themselves to defend God... These people fail to realize that it is on the inside that God must be defended, not on the outside.
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Yann Martel |
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3688218
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It is simple and brutal: a person can get used to anything, even to killing.
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Yann Martel |
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35b574d
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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.
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Yann Martel |
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225c56b
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I 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. You want a flat story. An immobile story. You want dry, yeastless factuality.
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Yann Martel |
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9b40dab
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One might even argue that if an animal could choose with intelligence, it would opt for living in a zoo, since the major difference between a zoo and the wild is the absence of parasites and enemies and the abundance of food in the first, and their respective abundance and scarcity in the second. Think about it yourself. Would you rather be put up at the Ritz with free room service and unlimited access to a doctor or be homeless without a s..
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Yann Martel |
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a5378e1
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Just as music is noise that makes sense, a painting is colour that makes sense, so a story is life that makes sense.
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art
books
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Yann Martel |
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83b6be3
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My feelings can perhaps be imagined, but they can hardly be described.
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Yann Martel |
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dd2b853
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The paths to liberation are numerous, but the bank along the way is always the same, the Bank of Karma, where the liberation account of each of us is credited or debited depending on our actions.
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Yann Martel |
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0599553
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I can well imagine an athiest's last words: "White, white! L-L-Love! My God!" - and the deathbed leap of faith. Whereas the agnostic, if he stays true to his reasonable self, if he stays beholden to dry, yeastless factuality, might try to explain the warm light bathing him by saying "Possibly a f-f-failing oxygenation of the b-b-brain," and, to the very end, lack imagination and miss the better story."
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Yann Martel |
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0e9f60c
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I must say a word about fear. It is life's only true opponent. Only fear can defeat life. It is a clever, treacherous adversary, how well I know. It has no decency, respects no law or convention, shows no mercy. It goes for your weakest spot, which it finds with unerring ease. It begins in your mind, always. One moment you are feeling calm, self-possessed, happy. Then fear, disguised in the garb of mild-mannered doubt, slips into your mind ..
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fear
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Yann Martel |
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1e5976e
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Just beyond the ticket booth Father had painted on a wall in bright red letters the question: DO YOU KNOW WHICH IS THE MOST DANGEROUS ANIMAL IN THE ZOO? An arrow pointed to a small curtain. There were so many eager, curious hands that pulled at the curtain that we had to replace it regularly. Behind it was a mirror.
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life
people
truth
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Yann Martel |
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72afa0c
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The blackness would stir and eventually go away, and God would remain, a shining point of light in my heart. I would go on loving.
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Yann Martel |
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9571522
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When your own life is threatened, your sense of empathy is blunted by a terrible, selfish hunger for survival.
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survival-instinct
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Yann Martel |
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dfa6d84
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My face set to a grim and determined expression. I speak in all modesty as I say this, but I discovered at that moment that I have a fierce will to live. It's not something evident, in my experience. Some of us give up on life with only a resigned sigh. Others fight a little, then lose hope. Still others - and I am one of those - never give up. We fight and fight and fight. We fight no matter the cost of battle, the losses we take, the impr..
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Yann Martel |
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6050d3b
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for everything has a trace of the divine in it.
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Yann Martel |
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2e2cff2
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People move because of the wear and tear of anxiety. Because of the gnawing feeling that no matter how hard they work their efforts will yield nothing, that what they build up in one year will be torn down in one day by others. Because of the impression that the future is blocked up, that *they* might do all right but not their children. Because of the feeling that nothing will change, that happiness and prosperity are possible only somewhe..
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Yann Martel |
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6ac7030
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High calls low and low calls high. I tell you, if you were in such dire straits as I was, you too would elevate your thoughts. The lower you are, the higher your mind will want to soar.
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Yann Martel |
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caaac2a
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As for hearing, the sloth is not so much deaf as uninterested in sound.
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humor
senses
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Yann Martel |
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2aec6bc
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And what a story. The first thing that drew me in was disbelief. What? Humanity sins but it's God's Son who pays the price? I tried to imagine Father saying to me, 'Piscine, a lion slipped into the llama pen today and killed two llamas. Yesterday another one killed a black buck. Last week two of them ate a camel. The situation has become intolerable. Something must be done. I have decided that the only way the lions can atone for their sins..
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Yann Martel |
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c576d3a
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It is life's only true opponent. Only fear can defeat life.
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Yann Martel |
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22ee3fd
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My gratitude to him is as boundless as the Pacific ocean.
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Yann Martel |
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8f1f9ee
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Faith in God is an opening up, a letting go, a deep trust, a free act of love.
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Yann Martel |
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335e615
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First wonder goes deepest; wonder after that fits in the impression made by the first.
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Yann Martel |
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8088981
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Gloom is but a shadow of a cloud passing by
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Yann Martel |
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fa5a01f
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the most dangerous animal in a zoo is Man.
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mankind
philosophy
truth
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Yann Martel |
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4513f0e
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I explore it now in the only place left for it, my memory.
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Yann Martel |
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7a1bcf2
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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.
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Yann Martel |
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2e099b7
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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.
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Yann Martel |
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0a26201
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A work of art works because it is true, not because it is real.
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Yann Martel |
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5891fa7
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ynbGy 'n tqbl lHy@ mthlm hy wtHwl 'n tSn` l'fDl mnh.
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Yann Martel |
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1f4c1ed
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Oncoming death is terrible enough, but worse still is oncoming death with time to spare, time in which all the happiness that was yours and all the happiness that might have been yours becomes clear to you. You see with utter lucidity all that you are losing.
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Yann Martel |
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2eb1833
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lHy@ ry'`@ l~ HdW 'n lmwt wq` fy Grmh.
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Yann Martel |
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ff26529
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The individual soul touches upon the world soul like a well reaches for the water table. That which sustains the universe beyond thought and language, and that which is at the core of us and struggles for expression, is the same thing. The finite within the infinite, the infinite within the finite.
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philosophical
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Yann Martel |
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59eb4ab
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I wept like a child. It was not because I was overcome at having survived my ordeal, though I was. Nor was it the presence of my brothers and sisters, though that too was very moving. I was weeping because ....fill in the blank with whatever/whoever helped you survive... had left me so unceremoniously.
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Yann Martel |
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4b37ecb
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Don't worry about being good.... Aspire to be authentic.
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Yann Martel |
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a06f56f
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It was as unbelievable as the moon catching fire.
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Yann Martel |