You can't quantify human pain the way you can measure out sugar. Death comes one individual at a time.
Yann MartelRead
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.
Interpretation
What this quote means
In challenging situations, one's thoughts can rise to inspire hope and ambition.
This quote by Yann Martel illustrates the idea that when one faces significant difficulties, it can lead to an elevation of thought and mindset. The contrast between 'high' and 'low' signifies the transformative power of adversity, where being in a low position can stimulate a desire to reach for higher aspirations, encouraging individuals to rise above their circumstances through a shift in perspective.
Themes
MotivationAspirationAdversityThoughtsElevation
In practice
Example use cases
Using this quote during a motivational speech to encourage those facing challenges.
More from Yann Martel
All quotes →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.
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, that’s 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
I can remember trying to coach, trying to figure out schemes, and it just wasn't coming to me.
Pat SummittRead
Hesitation is often like procrastination. One may have vague doubts and feel a need to mull things over; meanwhile, other issues intrude on thought, and no decision is taken. Ask people why they procrastinate, and you probably won't get a crisp answer.
Robert J. ShillerRead
Engage your emotions at work. Your instincts and emotions are there to help you.
Richard BransonRead
Failure is an event, never a person; an attitude, not an outcome; a temporary inconvenience; a stepping stone. Our response to it determines just how helpful it can be.
Zig ZiglarRead
Fortunately, something always remains to be harvested. So let us not be idle.
Gustav MahlerRead
Nothing ever built arose to touch the skies unless some man dreamed that it should, some man believed that it could, and some man willed that it must.
Charles KetteringRead