Life Of Pi Book Quotes:

Religion is more than rite and ritual.

- Yann Martel

source: Yann Martel (2012). “Life Of Pi, Illustrated”, p.79, Canongate Books

topic: Life Of Pi Book, Rite, Ritual

What a terrible thing it is to botch a farewell.

- Yann Martel

source: Yann Martel (2007). “Life of Pi (Illustrated): Deluxe Illustrated Edition”, p.294, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

topic: Farewell, Life Of Pi Book, Terrible, Terrible Things

If you stumble at mere believability, what are you living for? Isn't love hard to believe?

- Yann Martel

source: Yann Martel (2012). “Life Of Pi, Illustrated”, p.424, Canongate Books

topic: Believe, Belief, Life Of Pi Book, Hard To Believe, Believability

To choose doubt as a philosophy of life is akin to choosing immobility as a means of transportation.

- Yann Martel

source: Yann Martel (2012). “Life Of Pi, Illustrated”, p.51, Canongate Books

topic: Life, Philosophy, Mean, Means Of Transportation, Life Of Pi Book

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 like a spy.

- Yann Martel

source: Yann Martel (2007). “Life of Pi (Illustrated): Deluxe Illustrated Edition”, p.170, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

topic: Clever, Self, Law, Life Of Pi Book

You must take life the way it comes at you and make the best of it.

- Yann Martel

topic: Inspiring, Graduation, Cheer Up, Life Of Pi Book, Make The Best Of It

I suppose in the end, the whole of life becomes an act of letting go, but what always hurts the most is not taking a moment to say goodbye.

- Yann Martel

source: "Life of Pi". www.imdb.com. 2012.

topic: Letting Go, Goodbye, Hurt, Life Of Pi Book

I was giving up. I would have given up - if a voice hadn't made itself heard in my heart. The voice said "I will not die. I refuse it. I will make it through this nightmare. I will beat the odds, as great as they are. I have survived so far, miraculously. Now I will turn miracle into routine. The amazing will be seen everyday. I will put in all the hard work necessary. Yes, so long as God is with me, I will not die. Amen.

- Yann Martel

source: Yann Martel, Canongate Books (2007). “Life of Pi (Illustrated): Deluxe Illustrated Edition”, p.158, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

topic: Giving Up, Hard Work, Heart, Life Of Pi Book

I did not count the days or the weeks or the months. Time is an illusion that only makes us pant. I survived because I forgot even the very notion of time.

- Yann Martel

source: Yann Martel (2015). “Life of Pi - CANCELED”, p.201, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

topic: Months, Illusion, Week, Life Of Pi Book

If you stumble about believability, what are you living for? Love is hard to believe, ask any lover. Life is hard to believe, ask any scientist. God is hard to believe, ask any believer. What is your problem with hard to believe?

- Yann Martel

source: Yann Martel (2012). “Life Of Pi, Illustrated”, p.424, Canongate Books

topic: Life, Believe, Love Is, Love Is Hard, Life Of Pi Book

Nature can put on a thrilling show. The stage is vast, the lighting is dramatic, the extras are innumerable, and the budget for special effects is absolutely unlimited.

- Yann Martel

source: Yann Martel (2009). “Life of Pi”, p.113, Vintage Canada

topic: Special, Dramatic, Unlimited, Life Of Pi Book

I know zoos are no longer in people's good graces. Religion faces the same problem. Certain illusions about freedom plague them both.

- Yann Martel

source: Yann Martel, Canongate Books (2007). “Life of Pi (Illustrated): Deluxe Illustrated Edition”, p.34, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

topic: Zoos, People, Grace, Life Of Pi Book, Illusion Of Freedom

It's important in life to conclude things properly. Only then can you let go.

- Yann Martel

source: Yann Martel, Canongate Books (2007). “Life of Pi (Illustrated): Deluxe Illustrated Edition”, p.294, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

topic: Letting Go, Important, Importance, Life Of Pi Book

The reason death sticks so closely to life isn’t biological necessity – it’s envy.

- Yann Martel

source: Yann Martel (2012). “Life Of Pi, Illustrated”, p.19, Canongate Books

topic: Envy, Sticks, Reason, Life Of Pi Book

It is true that those we meet can change us, sometimes so profoundly that we are not the same afterwards, even unto our names.

- Yann Martel

source: Yann Martel (2012). “Life Of Pi, Illustrated”, p.39, Canongate Books

topic: Names, Sometimes, Life Of Pi Book

I am a person who believes in form, in the harmony of order. Where we can, we must give things a meaningful shape.

- Yann Martel

source: Marilyn Herbert, Yann Martel (2005). “Life of Pi”, p.62, Bookclub-in-a-Box

topic: Meaningful, Believe, Order, Life Of Pi Book

My greatest wish - other than salvation - was to have a book.

- Yann Martel

source: Yann Martel (2009). “Life of Pi”, p.230, Vintage Canada

topic: Book, Wish, Salvation, Life Of Pi Book

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.

- Yann Martel

source: Yann Martel (2009). “Life of Pi”, p.336, Vintage Canada

topic: Stories, Dry, Want, Life Of Pi Book

Jesus, Mary, Muhammad and Vishnu, how good to see you Richard Parker!

- Yann Martel

source: Yann Martel (2012). “Life Of Pi, Illustrated”, p.143, Canongate Books

topic: Jesus, Muhammad, Hinduism, Life Of Pi Book, Vishnu

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.

- Yann Martel

source: Yann Martel (2012). “Life Of Pi, Illustrated”, p.312, Canongate Books

topic: Simple, Games, Elements, Life Of Pi Book, Lifeboats

The world isn't just the way it is. It is how we understand it, no? And in understanding something, we bring something to it, no? Doesn't that make life a story?

- Yann Martel

topic: Life, Travel, Understanding, Life Of Pi Book

Why do people move? What makes them uproot and leave everything they've known for a great unknown beyond the horizon? ... The answer is the same the world over: people move in the hope of a better life.

- Yann Martel

source: Yann Martel (2009). “Life of Pi”, p.86, Vintage Canada

topic: Moving, People, Horizon, Life Of Pi Book, Beyond The Horizon

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.

- Yann Martel

source: Yann Martel, Canongate Books (2007). “Life of Pi (Illustrated): Deluxe Illustrated Edition”, p.218, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

topic: Heart, Light, Shining, Life Of Pi Book, Points Of Light

To lose a brother is to lose someone with whom you can share the experience of growing old, who is supposed to bring you a sister-in-law and nieces and nephews, creatures who people the tree of your life and give it new branches. To lose your father is to lose the one whose guidance and help you seek, who supports you like a tree trunk supports its branches. To lose your mother, well, that is like losing the sun above you. It is like losing--I'm sorry, I would rather not go on.

- Yann Martel

topic: Mother, Brother, Sorry, Niece And Nephew, Life Of Pi Book

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?

- Yann Martel

source: Yann Martel, Canongate Books (2007). “Life of Pi (Illustrated): Deluxe Illustrated Edition”, p.111, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

topic: Giving, Reptiles, Answers, Life Of Pi Book

If Christ spent an anguished night in prayer, if He burst out from the Cross, 'My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?' then surely we are also permitted doubt. But we must move on. To choose doubt as a philosophy of life is akin to choosing immobility as a means of transportation.

- Yann Martel

source: "Life of Pi". Book by Yann Martel, September 11, 2001.

topic: Prayer, Philosophy, Moving, Means Of Transportation, Life Of Pi Book

Much hostile and aggressive behaviour among animals is the expression of social insecurity.

- Yann Martel

source: Yann Martel (2012). “Life Of Pi, Illustrated”, p.73, Canongate Books

topic: Animal, Expression, Insecurity, Life Of Pi Book

Life on a lifeboat isn't much of a life. It is like an end game in chess, a game with a few pieces. The elements couldn't be more simple, nor the stakes higher. Physically it is extraordinarily arduous, and morally it is killing...You get your happiness where you can. You reach a point where you're at the bottom of hell, yet you have your arms crossed and a smile on your face, and you feel you're the luckiest person on earth. Why? Because at your feet you have a tiny dead fish

- Yann Martel

source: Yann Martel (2002). “Life Of Pi”, p.292, Canongate Books

topic: Life, Simple, Games, Life Of Pi Book, Lifeboats