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Life of Pi Quotes

I will be continuously updating this list as I further read Life of Pi. Here are some of my favorite quotes so far:

“…for the Greater Good and the Greater Profit are not compatible aims…” (Martel, 78)

“To choose doubt as a philosophy of life is akin to choosing immobility as a means of transportation.” (Martel, 28)

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  • S
    Stupid.
  • louthella
    a tie is a noose, and inverted though it is, it will hang a man nonetheless if he's not careful
  • Ariadne_2
    Quote pge -19-. Zoos are no longer in people's good graces. Religion faces the same problem. Certain illusions about freedom plague them both. [Pondicherry Zoo doesn't exist any more].
    I am convinced there is an analogy with reference to PI, his Richard Parker and "the" Richard Parker that derives from the ballpen of author Neil Hanson.
    Illusions about freedom;
    The matter is; what would you be willing to do to survive? Our life in freedom? We are like the animals in the zoo. The confined survivalism in the lifeboat leading to existential mind explorations and leading to certain critical decisions.
    The story in my opinion relates to the story "Custom of the Sea": a true shipwreck tale on the last taboo. The author is Neil Hanson. In short, a few shipwreckers after weaks of deprivation, ultimately choose to kill amongst them a weak and dying seventeen year old boy and eat him in order to survive. This boy, "Richard Parker" represents the death that is grabbed. Not by biological necessity. The death of RP in this book sticks to life in a sense that his body saves the lives of his fellows. They survive, but in spite of this life saving act, "custom of the sea", their spared lives do not leed to freedom. These few survivers are hunted and next to overwhelming remorse, they are hunted and overtaken by the legal system.

    The life of PI embodies, however in metaphors, these various moral ambiguities. PI's beliefs and hope lead him to choose for the other kind of death. The kind of death that comes with faith, the kind that leaps over oblivion easily. PI could not abandon RP. To leave him would mean to kill him (pge 276). Quote; in the throes of unremitting suffering PI should turn to God. Thank RP for saving his life and wishing God would be with him. Like RP in Neil Hansons book where his life was stolen and used to save the lives of others, the leg of the wounded sailor (Zebra) was "stolen" by the French cook (as bait) to save the lives of others. The sailor died and was butchered like Hansons RP.
    Moral and legal justification
    In the story of Martell, PI concluded, he (the tiger RP) should not trust Man (pge 279). Man is not your friend. To do RP justice there's this shift of roles. Instead of the weak pray-like RP of Hanson (the RP that gets eaten by men) in contrast, the RP of PI's story is the strong tiger. The kind of tiger that for instance, eats the French cook alive. Talking of justice done, no weakness and cannibalism is never an option.
    In this alternative way, the telling of something, the life of PI, becomes this astounding hard to believe story of courage and endurance. Then again, quote pge 294: Love is hard to believe, ask any lover. Life is hard to believe, ask any scientist. God is hard to believe, ask any believer.

    Having read this magnificent book, in the end it may feel safe to conclude that given the extraordinarily difficult and tragic circumstances, the (moral and/or legal) justification of certain seemingly "unorthodoxe" acts, may not be in mortal hands.
  • greeneyes
    i hate this book with a passion
    but some of it is very good and rings true
    chapter 22 for example
    and the last 4 chapters made me laugh no end..."look at that. they really do float"
    "i'd like another cookie"
    "love is hard to believe, ask any lover. Life is hard to believe, ask any scientist. God is hard to believe, ask any believer"
  • daftbrain
    "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..."
  • lj
    i need a quate regrading life and death in life of pi
  • Magg
    This is my favorite book. I loved it so much. I actually chose the second one for my senior quote to go in the yearbook.
  • Richard
    yaaaaaas i finished the book ages ago and fecking loved it it was great
  • Katrina
    i looked in the book for the pages of those quotes and well they weren't there. maybe we have different copies or something but your quotes weren't there.. and well i would really like to know what you think of these quotes.
  • i really didnt like this book what so ever i thought it was really bad, but it had a lot of meaning ful quotes. i guess
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