In my youth, it was my good luck to have a few good teachers, men and women, who came into my head and lit a match. - Yann Martel

"I still smart a little at the slight. When you've suffered a great deal in life, each additional pain is both unbearable and trifling. My life is like a memento mori painting from European art: there is always a grinning skull at my side to remind me of the folly of human ambition. I mock this skull. I look at it and I say, "You've got the wrong fellow. You may not believe in life, but I don't believe in death. Move on!" The skull snickers and moves ever closer, but that doesn't surprise me. 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."

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

The lower you are, the higher your mind will want to soar.