Jostein Gaarder Quotes and Sayings - Page 1
More Jostein Gaarder quote about:
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“A state that does not educate and train women is like a man who only trains his right arm.”
-- Jostein Gaarder -
“A hydrogen atom in a cell at the end of my nose was once part of an elephant's trunk. A carbon atom in my cardiac muscle was once in the tail of a dinosaur.”
-- Jostein Gaarder -
“How terribly sad it was that people are made in such a way that they get used to something as extraordinary as living.”
-- Jostein Gaarder -
“You can never know if a person forgives you when you wrong them. Therefore it is existentially important to you. It is a question you are intensely concerned with. Neither can you know whether a person loves you. It’s something you just have to believe or hope. But these things are more important to you than the fact that the sum of the angles in a triangle is 180 degrees. You don't think about the law of cause and effect or about modes of perception when you are in the middle of your first kiss.”
-- 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 -
“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 -
“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 -
“We are thrown together with a sprinkling of stardust.”
-- Jostein Gaarder -
“Since the Renaissance, people have had to get used to living their life on a random planet in the vast galaxy.”
-- Jostein Gaarder -
“The most subversive people are those who ask questions.”
-- Jostein Gaarder -
“Wasn’t it extraordinary to be in the world right now, wandering around in a wonderful adventure!”
-- Jostein Gaarder -
“I sat thinking how terribly sad it was that people are made in such a way that they get used to something as incredible as living. One day we suddenly take the fact that we exist for granted - and then, yes, then we don’t think about it anymore until we are about to leave the world again.”
-- 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 -
“There is always Joker to see through the delusion. Generation succeeds generation, but there is a fool walking the earth who is never ravaged by time.”
-- 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 -
“Life is both sad and solemn. We are led into a wonderful world, we meet one another here, greet each other---and wander together for a brief moment. Then we lose each other and disappear as suddenly and unreasonably as we arrived.”
-- Jostein Gaarder -
“It's not a silly question if you can't answer it.”
-- Jostein Gaarder -
“A philosopher knows that in reality he knows very little. That is why he constantly strives to achieve true insight. Socrates was one of these rare people. He knew that he knew nothing about life and about the world. And now comes the important part: it troubled him that he knew so little.”
-- Jostein Gaarder -
“Health is the natural condition. When sickness occurs, it is a sign that Nature has gone off course because of a physical or mental imbalance. The road to health for everyone is through moderation, harmony, and a 'sound mind in a sound body'.”
-- Jostein Gaarder -
“Acting responsibly is not a matter of strengthening our reason but of deepening our feelings for the welfare of others.”
-- Jostein Gaarder -
“I believe there is something of the divine mystery in everything that exists. We can see it sparkle in a sunflower or a poppy. We sense more of the unfathomable mystery in a butterfly that flutters from a twig--or in a goldfish swimming in a bowl. But we are closest to God in our own soul. Only there can we become one with the greatest mystery of life. In truth, at very rare moments we can experience that we ourselves are that divine mystery.”
-- Jostein Gaarder -
“... the only thing we require to be good philosophers is the faculty of wonder...”
-- Jostein Gaarder -
“And although I have seen nothing but black crows in my life, it doesn't mean that there's no such thing as a white crow. Both for a philosopher and for a scientist it can be important not to reject the possibility of finding a white crow. You might almost say that hunting for 'the white crow' is science's principal task.”
-- 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 -
“going only part of the way is not the same as going the wrong way”
-- Jostein Gaarder -
“Philosophy is the opposite of fairy tales”
-- Jostein Gaarder -
“Socrates himself said, 'One thing only I know, and this is that I know nothing.' Remember this statement, because it is an admission that is rare, even among philosophers. Moreover, it can be so dangerous to say in public that it can cost you your life. The most subversive people are those who ask questions. Giving answers is not nearly as threatening. Any one question can be more explosive than a thousand answers.”
-- Jostein Gaarder -
“Wisest is she who knows she does not know.”
-- Jostein Gaarder -
“To wonder about life is not something we learn; it is something we forget.”
-- Jostein Gaarder -
“For nature is good, an man is 'by nature' good; it is civilization which ruins him”
-- Jostein Gaarder
