Philosophy Quote by Yann Martel — Inspiring Words on Life, Love & Wisdom

“Faith in God is an opening up, a letting go, a deep trust, a free act of love - but sometimes it was so hard to love.”

“The obsession with putting ourselves at the centre of everything is the bane not only of theologians but also of zoologists.”

“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.”

“So tell me, since it makes no factual difference to you and you can't prove the question either way, which story do you prefer? Which is the better story, the story with animals or the story without animals?' Mr. Okamoto: 'That's an interesting question?' Mr. Chiba: 'The story with animals.' Mr. Okamoto: 'Yes. The story with animals is the better story.' Pi Patel: 'Thank you. And so it goes with God.”

“Life is so beautiful that death has fallen in love with it, a jealous, possessive love that grabs at what it can get.”

“These people walk by a widow deformed by leprosy...walk by children dressed in rags living in the street, and they think, 'Business as usual.' But if they perceive a slight against God, it is a different story. Their faces go red, their chests heave mightily, they sputter angry words. The degree of their indignation is astonishing. Their resolve is frightening.”

“A constitution that is made for all nations is made for none.”

“I never quite understood the question that says, is the glass half empty or half full? What’s the difference? Eventually it’ll end up empty and in the trash.”

“Wenn man nachts nicht schläft, werden Träume wahr.”

“De jure objections are arguments of claims to the effect that Christian belief, whether or not true, is at any rate unjustifiable, or rationally unjustified, or irrational, or not intellectually respectable, or contrary to sound morality, or without sufficient evidence, or in some other way rationally unacceptable, not up to snuff from an intellectual point of view.”

“Any war that requires the suspension of reason as a necessity for support is a bad war.”

“Once someone asked me, "What do you want to be your epitaph?" So I said, "Paulo Coelho died when he was alive.”