Jostein Gaarder Quotes

67 Sourced Quotes

The soul yearns to fly home on the wings of love to the world of ideas. It longs to be freed from the chains of the body.

Jostein Gaarder
A Russian cosmonaut and a Russian brain surgeon were once discussing Christianity. The brain surgeon was a Christian, but the cosmonaut wasn't. 'I have been in outer space many times,' bragged the cosmonaut, 'but I have never seen any angels.' The brain surgeon stared in amazement, but then he said, 'And I have operated on many intelligent brains, but I have never seen a single thought.

Jostein Gaarder
But understanding will always require some effort. You probably wouldn't admire a friend who was good at everything if it cost her no effort.

Jostein Gaarder
Although you may not stumble across a Martian in the garden, you might stumble across yourself. The day that happens, you'll probably also scream a little. And that'll be perfectly all right, because it's not every day you realize you're a living planet dweller on a little island in the universe.

Jostein Gaarder
When we die, as when the scenes have been fixed on to celluloid and the scenery is pulled down and burnt — we are phantoms in the memories of our descendants. Then we are ghosts, my dear, then we are myths. But still we are together. We are the past together, we are a distant past. Beneath the dome of the mysterious stars, I still hear your voice.

Jostein Gaarder
Dear Hilde, if the human brain was simple enough for us to understand, we would still be so stupid that we couldn't understand it. Love, Dad.

Jostein Gaarder
Going only part of the way is not the same as going the wrong way

Jostein Gaarder
Acting responsibly is not a matter of strengthening our reason but of deepening our feelings for the welfare of others.

Jostein Gaarder
Only philosophers embark on this perilous expedition to the outermost reaches of language and existence. Some of them fall off, but others cling on desperately and yell at the people nestling deep in the snug softness, stuffing themselves with delicious food and drink. 'Ladies and Gentlemen,' they yell, 'we are floating in space!' But none of the people down there care

Jostein Gaarder
A sensation is always the same as a piece of news, and a piece of news never lives long.

Jostein Gaarder
There exists a world. In terms of probability this borders on the impossible. It would have been far more likely if, by chance, there was nothing at all. Then, at least, no one would have began asking why there was nothing.

Jostein Gaarder
Superstitious." What a strange word. If you believed in Christianity or Islam, it was called "faith". But if you believed in astrology or Friday the thirteenth it was superstition! Who had the right to call other people's belief superstition?

Jostein Gaarder
It takes billions of years to create a human being. And it takes only a few seconds to die.

Jostein Gaarder
Life is short for those who are truly able to understand that one day the entire world will come to a complete end. Not everyone is capable of that. Not everyone has the ability to comprehend what going away for all eternity really implies. There are too many distractions, hour by hour, minute by minute, to hinder such an understanding.

Jostein Gaarder
The question of whether a thing is right or wrong, good or bad, must always be considered in relation to a persons needs.

Jostein Gaarder
As long as we are children, we have the ability to experience things around us—but then we grow used to the world. To grow up is to get drunk on sensory experience.

Jostein Gaarder
Our lives are part of a unique adventure... Nevertheless, most of us think the world is 'normal' and are constantly hunting for something abnormal—like angels or Martians. But that is just because we don't realize the world is a mystery. As for myself, I felt completely different. I saw the world as an amazing dream. I was hunting for some kind of explanation of how everything fit together.

Jostein Gaarder