Great Throughts Treasury

"What a shock when a person's heart has to be something done with that! Who loses a brother who loses someone with whom he could grow old together, someone to give him a sister, nieces and nephews, people populate the tree of life and give it new branches are. The father losing is losing, which gives the direction of the life, those to which you go when you're in distress, which carries a and receives, as a strain carries the branches of a tree. And when you lose the mother, that's when you lose the sun in the sky."

"What a terrible disease that must be if it could kill God in a man."

"What a terrible thing it is to botch a farewell. I am a person who believes in form, in the harmony of order. Where we can, we must give things a meaningful shape. For example - I wonder - could you tell my jumbled story in exactly one hundred chapters, not one more, not one less? I'll tell you, that's one thing I have about my nickname, the way the number runs on forever. It's important in life to conclude things properly. Only then can you let go. Otherwise you are left with words you should have said but never did, and your heart is heavy with remorse. That bungled goodbye hurts me to this day. I wish so much that I'd had one last look at him in the lifeboat, that I'd provoked him a little, so that I was on his mind. I wish I had said to him then - yes, I know, to a tiger, but still - I wish I had said, Richard Parker, it's over. We have survived. Can you believe it? I owe you more gratitude than I can express I couldn't have done it without you. I would like to say it formally: Richard Parker, thank you. Thank you for saving my life. And now go where you must. You have known the confined freedom of a zoo most of your life; now you will know the free confinement of a jungle. I wish you all the best with it. Watch out for Man. He is not your friend. But I hope you will remember me as a friend. I will never forget you , that is certain. You will always be with me, in my heart. What is that hiss? Ah, our boat has touched sand. So farewell, Richard Parker, farewell. God be with you."

"What don?t we realize is that we are a strange and forbidding species to wild animals. We fill them with fear. They avoid us as much as possible. It took centuries to still the fear in some pliable animals ? domestication it?s called ? but most cannot get over their fear, and I doubt they ever will. When wild animals fight us, it is out of sheer desperation. They fight when they feel they have no other way out."

"What a thing to acknowledge in your heart! 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 to 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."

"What of God?s silence? I think it over. I add:"

"What his uncle does not understand is that in walking backwards, his back to the world, his back to God, he is not grieving. He is objecting. Because when everything cherished by you in life has been taken away, what else is there to do but object?"

"What is important in life is to end everything for chin chu. There's a new me peace of mind that goes by. Otherwise, we also full time in the words to say, but nobody ever said, and my heart will be heavy with regret."

"Whatever the reason for wanting to escape, sane or insane, zoo detractors should realize that animals don't escape to somewhere but from something. Something within their territory has frightened them - the intrusion of an enemy, the assault of a dominant animal, a startling noise - and set off a flight reaction.... Animals that escape go from the known into the unknown - and if there is one thing an animal hates above all else, it is the unknown."

"What is the purpose of reason, Richard Parker? Is it no more than to shine at practicalities - the getting of food, clothing and shelter? 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 of there's so little fish to catch?"

"When animals fight, it is with the intent to kill and with the understanding that they may be killed."

"When I corrected her, I told her that in fact she was not so wrong; that Hindus, in their capacity for love, are indeed hairless Christians, just as Muslims, in the way they see God in everything, are bearded Hindus, and Christians, in their devotion to God, are hat-wearing Muslims."

"When we have much pain in his life, every new pain will just heavy but also meant nothing."

"When the course of experience made me see that there is no savior and no special grace, no remission beyond the human, that pain is to be endured and fades, if it fades, only with time, then God became nothing to me but a dyslexic dog, with neither bark nor bite."

"When you have suffered a lot in life, each extra pain may be so insignificant and unsustainable"

"When your own life is threatened, your sense of empathy is blunted by a terrible, selfish hunger for survival."

"When you've suffered a great deal in life, each additional pain is both unbearable and trifling."

"While Christians kneel before a white man! They are flunkies of a foreign god. They are nightmare of all nonwhite people."

"When you've suffered a lot in life, each additional pain is as tolerable as insignificant."

"Why can we throw a question further than we can pull in an answer?"

"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?"

"Why do people move out?... People on the move to a better life."

"Why do people move? What makes them uproot and leave everything they've known for a great unknown beyond the horizon? Why climb this Mount Everest of formalities that makes you feel like a beggar? Why enter this jungle of foreignness where everything is new, strange and difficult? The answer is the same the world over: people move in the hope of a better life."

"Why tolerate darkness? Everything is here and it is clear if we look with due attention."

"Why make dirty what is beautiful, spoil what is perfect? Love."

"Without a driver this bus is lost. Our lives are over. 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."

"Why would God undergo something? Why not leave death to the mortals? Why I had to mess that was beautiful, spoil perfection?"

"Without madness would no species can survive."

"Words are cold, muddy toads trying to understand sprites dancing in a field-but they're all we have."

"You can get used to anything - haven't I already said that? Isn't that what all survivors say?"

"Yes! Practice-singular!' the wise men screamed in unison. Three index fingers, like punctuation marks, jumped to attention in the air to emphasize their point (Life of Pi 68)."

"You have to make changes if you want to be a survivor. Many become a consumer, you get your happiness where they can. Up to the point they were at the bottom of Hell, and with it Tjlh Mtkacva and smile above your face, feeling that you are more fortunate people on the face of the simple. Why? Because there is a thick small dead at your feet."

"You bring joy and pain in equal measure- 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."

"You bring joy and pain in equal measure. Joy because you are with me, but pain because it won.t be for long."

"You may be astonished that in such a short period of time I could go from weeping over the muffled killing of a flying fish to gleefully bludgeoning to death a dorado. I could explain it by arguing that profiting from a pitiful flying fish?s navigational mistake made me shy and sorrowful, while the excitement of actively capturing a great dorado made me sanguinary and self-assured. But in point of fact the explanation lies elsewhere. It is simple and brutal: a person can get used to anything, even to killing."

"You may not believe in life, but I don't believe in death. ... The reason death sticks so closely to life isn't biological necessity--it's envy. Life is so beautiful that death has fallen in love with it, a jealous, possessive love that grabs at what it can. But life leaps over oblivion lightly, losing only a thing or two of no importance, and gloom is but the passing shadow of a cloud."

"You see these guinea pigs? Well... they're not dangerous."

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

"You might think I lost all hope at that point. I did. And as a result I perked up and felt much better."

"You must fight hard to shine the light of words upon it. Because if you don't, if your fear becomes a wordless darkness that you avoid, perhaps even manage to forget, you open yourself to further attacks of fear because you never truly fought the opponent who defeated you."

"You might have noticed that I have been sending you used books. I have done this not to save money, but to make a point which is that a used book, unlike a used car, hasn't lost any of its initial value. A good story rolls of the lot into the hands of its new reader as smoothly as the day it was written. And there's another reason for these used paperbacks that never cost much even when new; I like the idea of holding a book that someone else has held, of eyes running over lines that have already seen the light of other eyes. That, in one image, is the community of readers, is the communion of literature."

"Zoo on the same absurd idea I have heard much about God and religion. Lots of well-wishing, but uninformed people believe that wild animals in the world are happy to live, because freedom is present. Will say this in front of a tall and burly body, handsome predators, say, a lion or leopard (or gnu because, hey, what is acceptable ?!). Imagine what kind of pounding and roaring of being moved in Savannah is a great beast - is trying to digest the victim, which is to obey whatever; Or imagine prey stubborn, energetic race - as he shaped to keep trying a lot after meals."

"You see, the penis, it's so graceless, wouldn't you agree? When it's cold and shriveled up, it looks like W.H. Auden in his old age; when it's hot, it flops and dangles about in a ridiculous way; when it's excited, it looks so pained and earnest you'd think it was going to burst into tears. And the scrotum! To think that something so vital to the survival of the species, fully responsible for 50 per cent of the ingredients--though none of the work--should hang freely from the body in a tiny, defenseless bag of skin. One whack, one bite, one paw-scratch--and it's just the right level, too, for your average animal, a dog, a lion, a sabre-tooth tiger--and that's it, end of story. Don't you think it should get better protection? Behind some bone, for example, like us? What could be better than our nicely tapered entrance? It's discreet and stylish, everything is cleverly and compactly encased in the body, with nothing hanging out within easy reach of a closing subway door, there's a neat triangle of hair above it, like a road sign, should you lose your way--it's perfect. The penis is just such a lousy design. It's pre-Scandinavian. Pre-Bauhaus, even."