Jostein Gaarder Quotes & Sayings

The greatest thing of all is love. Time can't pale that as easily as it fades old memories. — Jostein Gaarder

A true philosopher must never give up. — Jostein Gaarder

The word 'influenza' actually means a malign influence from the stars. — Jostein Gaarder

Many of the Nazis were convicted after the war, but they were not convicted for being 'unreasonable'. They were convicted for being gruesome murderers. — Jostein Gaarder

But she'd managed to find her way into our reality, perhaps because she had an important mission here, perhaps because she was here to save us from what people call the monotony of life. — 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

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

Long before the child learns to talk properly ... the world will have become a habit. A pity, if you ask me. — Jostein Gaarder

I am in the world now, she thought, but one day I shall be gone. — Jostein Gaarder

He just asked questions, especially to begin a conversation, as if he knew nothing. In the course of the discussion he would generally get his opponents to recognize the weakness of their arguments, and, forced into a corner, they would finally be obliged to realize what was right and what was wrong. — Jostein Gaarder

Indeed, there is pain when spring buds burst..."
Wasn't there a Swedish poet who had said something like that? Or was she Finnish? — Jostein Gaarder

If just one of [those people] experiences life as a crazy adventure
and I mean that he, or she, experiences this every single day ... Then he or she is a joker in a pack of cards. — Jostein Gaarder

When we look up at the sky, we are trying to find the way to ourselves. — Jostein Gaarder

Hello again! As you see, this short course in philosophy will come in handy-sized portions. — Jostein Gaarder

Jeppe on the Mount
"By Ludvig Holberg
"Jeppe falls asleep in a ditch ... and wakes up in the Baron's bed. So he thinks he only dreamed that he was a poor farmhand. Then when he falls asleep again they carry him back to the ditch, and he wakes up again. This time he thinks he only dreamed he was lying in the Baron's bed. — Jostein Gaarder

If an overgrown child draws something on a piece of paper, you can't ask the paper what the drawing is supposed to represent. — Jostein Gaarder

To Hegel, history was like a running river. Every tiny movement in the water at a given spot in the river is determined by the falls and eddies in the water higher upstream. But these movements are determined, too, by the rocks and bends in the river at the point where you are observing it.
the history of thought
or of reason
is like this river. The thoughts that are washed along with the current of past tradition, as well as the material conditions prevailing at the time, help to determine how you think. You can therefore never claim that any particular thought is correct for ever and ever. But the thought can be correct from where you stand — Jostein Gaarder

Thor - the Batman or James Bond of the gods - has once again conquered the forces of evil. — Jostein Gaarder

Over the entrance to the temple at Delphi was a famous inscription: KNOW THYSELF! It reminded visitors that man must never believe himself to be more than mortal - and that no man can escape his destiny. — Jostein Gaarder

I never tried to ingratiate myself with great writers. When a great writer has nothing to say, he does something else, like chopping firewood. A great writer doesn't try to find something to write about, he only writes when he has to. I was no great writer. I've always had the need to unload my thoughts, and so had to live with a kind of mental incontinence, but I've never felt forced to write a novel. Nor, for that matter, have I ever chopped firewood. — Jostein Gaarder

If our brains were as simple as we could understand them, than we would be so stupid that we couldn't understand them again. — Jostein Gaarder

When we talked about Socrates, we saw how dangerous it could be to appeal to people's reason. With Jesus we see how dangerous it can be to demand unconditional forgiveness. Even in the world of today, we can see how mighty powers can come apart at the seams when confronted with simple demands for peace, love, food for the poor, and amnesty for the enemies of the state. — Jostein Gaarder

Existence takes priority over essence. — 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

Why was it so difficult to be absorbed in the most vital and, in a way, the most natural of all questions? — Jostein Gaarder

This is precisely where philosophers are a notable exception. A philosopher never gets quite used to the world. to him or her, the world continues to seem a bit unreasonable - bewildering, even enigmatic. Philosophers and small children thus have an important faculty in common. You might say that throughout his life a philosopher remains as thin-skinned as a child. — Jostein Gaarder

Life is like a huge lottery in which only the winning tickets are visible. — Jostein Gaarder

One thing only I know, and that is that I know nothing. — Jostein Gaarder

I said his line of thought - referring to the philosopher, because this is also a story of men. — Jostein Gaarder

It is extraordinary to think about. We still speak of Socratic or Platonic philosophy, but actually being Plato or Socrates is quite another matter. — Jostein Gaarder

At some point something must have come from nothing. — Jostein Gaarder

Once upon a time, thirty thousand years ago, there lived a little boy in the Rhine valley. He was a tiny part of nature, a tiny ripple on an endless sea. You too. Sophie, you too are living a tiny part of nature's life. There is no difference between you and that boy.'
'Except that I'm alive now.'
'Yes, but that is precisely what I wanted you to try and imagine. Who will you be in thirty thousand years? — Jostein Gaarder

Philosophy is the opposite of fairy tales — 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

Even though God could create all kinds of things, he could hardly create himself before he had a "self" to create with. So there was only one possibility left: God had always existed. But she had already rejected that possibility! Everything that existed had to have a beginning. — Jostein Gaarder

But all fairytales have rules, and perhaps it's their rules that actually distinguish one fairytale from the other. These rules never need to be understood. They only need to be followed. If not, what they promise won't come true. — 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

The universe is a great mystery. — Jostein Gaarder

The old Chinese sage Chuang-tzu, for example, said: Once I dreamed I was a butterfly, and now I no longer know whether I am Chuang-tzu, who dreamed I was a butterfly, or whether I am a butterfly dreaming that I am Chuang-tzu. — Jostein Gaarder

It is different for us mortals. We are the ones who become old and grey. We are the ones who become worn at the seams and disappear. But not our dreams. They can live on in other people even after we have gone. — Jostein Gaarder

Throughout the entire history of philosophy, philosophers have sought to discover what man is - or what human nature is. But Sartre believed that man has no such eternal nature to fall back on. It is therefore useless to search for the meaning of life in general. We are condemned to improvise. We are like actors dragged onto the stage without having learned our lines, with no script and no prompter to whisper stage directions to us. We must decide for ourselves how to live. — Jostein Gaarder

If something was natural, she supposed, it was the same for everybody. — 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

I want to understand more about the world while I'm still here. — Jostein Gaarder

I have gone around observing your activities from the outside. Because of this I have also been able to see things to which you have been blind ... Every morning you have gone to work, but you have never been fully awake. Of course, you have seen the sun and the moon, the stars in the sky, and everything that moves, but you haven't really seen it at all. It is different for the Joker, because he was put into this world with a flaw: He sees too clearly and too much. — 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

We do not believe in the notion of God's chosen people. We laugh at this people's fancies and weep over its misdeeds. To act as God's chosen people is not only stupid and arrogant, but a crime against humanity. We call it racism. — Jostein Gaarder

The artist plays freely on his faculty of cognition. — Jostein Gaarder

Remembering a dream is almost as hard as catching a bird in your hand, but sometimes it's as if the bird comes and sits on your shoulder of its own free will. — 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

Sophie found philosophy doubly exciting because she was able to follow all the ideas by using her own common sense - without having to remember everything she had learned at school. She decided that philosophy was not something you can learn; but perhaps you can learn to think philosophically. — Jostein Gaarder

But it is possible that a completely different author is somewhere writing a book about a UN Major Albert Knag, who is writing a book for his daughter Hilde. This book is about a certain Alberto Knox who suddenly begins to send humble philosophical lectures to Sophie Amundsen, 3 Clover Close. — Jostein Gaarder

WHEN WE EVENTUALLY ARRIVED in Venice late in the afternoon, we had to park the car in a large lot before we were allowed to enter the town itself, because Venice doesn't have a single proper street. — Jostein Gaarder

Hegel claimed that the 'world spirit' is developing toward an ever-expanding knowledge of itself. It's the same with rivers
they become broader and broader as they get nearer to the sea. According to Hegel, history is the story of the 'world spirit' gradually coming to consciousness of itself. Although the world has always existed, human culture and human development have made the world spirit increasingly conscious of its intrinsic value. — Jostein Gaarder

The artist should thus derive the freest possible inspiration from his dream images and strive toward a "super realism" in which the boundaries between dream and reality were dissolved. For an artist too it can be necessary to break the censorship of the conscious and let words and images have free play. — Jostein Gaarder

But flying across the centuries would have been a hefty job even for a very ironic goose. Crossing the Swedish provinces is far easier — Jostein Gaarder

One mustn't be so cocksure, Joker says. Bad habit, he repeats. — Jostein Gaarder

Do you mind telling me what's suddenly so important?'
Sophie just shook her head. 'It's ... it's a secret.'
'Yuck! You're probably in love. — Jostein Gaarder

They made up all those myths in the time before there was anything called science. — Jostein Gaarder

All a man can see while looking at the sky are cosmic fossils of thousands and millions of years ago. The only thing an astrologer can predict, is the past. — Jostein Gaarder

When two people meet," he said, "and one is upside down, it isn't always easy to tell which of them is the right way up. — Jostein Gaarder

The rearing of children is considered too important to be left to the individual and should be the responsibility of the state. — Jostein Gaarder

It is by no means certain that we advance our philosophical quest by reading Plato or Aristotle. It may increase our knowledge of history but not of the world. — Jostein Gaarder

The theater of the absurd represented a contrast to realistic theater. Its aim was to show the lack of meaning in life in order to get the audience to disagree. The idea was not to cultivate the meaningless. On the contrary. But by showing and exposing the absurd in ordinary everyday situations, the onlookers are forced to seek a truer and more essential life for themselves. — Jostein Gaarder

He was not only the last of the great Greek philosophers, he was Europe's first great biologist. — Jostein Gaarder

Circus performers and variety shows will never captivate me in the same way as steppes or rainforests, or the sky's uncountable galaxies and all the billions of light years that separate them. — Jostein Gaarder

Empedocles believed that there were two different forces at work in nature. He called them love and strife. Love binds things together, and strife separates them. — 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

Maybe we can comprehend a flower or an insect, but we can never comprehend ourselves. Even less can we expect to comprehend the universe. — Jostein Gaarder

Thus the 'fortune-teller' is trying to foresee something that is really quite unforeseeable. This is characteristic of all forms of foreseeing. And precisely because what they 'see' is so vague, it is hard to repudiate fortune-tellers' claims. — Jostein Gaarder

Sophie saw that the philosopher was right. Grownups took the world for granted. They had let themselves be lulled into the enchanted sleep of their humdrum existence once and for all. 'You've just grown so used to the world that nothing surprises you any more. — 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

People are, generally speaking, either dead certain or totally indifferent. — Jostein Gaarder

No day is alike - I do many other things, and I'm very active in the environmental movement. — Jostein Gaarder

The story goes that one day Socrates stood gazing at a stall that sold all
kinds of wares. Finally he said, What a lot of things I don't need! — Jostein Gaarder

It was rather like having been color-blind. She had seen some shadows but had not seen the clear ideas. — Jostein Gaarder

The sophists were as a rule men who had traveled widely and seen different forms of government. Both conventions and local laws in the city-states could vary widely. This led the Sophists to raise the question of what was natural and what was socially induced. By doing this, they paved the way for social criticism in the city-state of Athens. — Jostein Gaarder

The stupidest thing she knew was for people to act like they knew all about the things they knew absolutely nothing about. — Jostein Gaarder

I am really more interested in questions than in giving answers. — Jostein Gaarder

But she who wins the lot of life must also draw the lot of death, since the lot of life is death — Jostein Gaarder

In the eyeball there is a clash between creation and reflection. The two-way globes of sight are magical revolving doors where the creative spirit meets itself in the created spirit. The eye that surveys the universe is the universe's own eye. — Jostein Gaarder

But that's not all, Sophie. IT'S NOT ALL! — Jostein Gaarder

Is there such a thing as natural modesty?
Wisest is she who knows she does not know ...
True insight comes from within.
He who knows what is right will do right. — Jostein Gaarder

Nevertheless we are free individuals, and this freedom condemns us to make choices throughout our lives. There are no eternal values or norms we can adhere to, which makes our choices even more significant. Because we are totally responsible for everything we do. Sartre emphasized that man must never disclaim the responsibility for his actions. Nor can we avoid the responsibility of making our own choices on the grounds that we "must" go to work, or we "must" live up to certain middle-class expectations regarding how we should live. Those who thus slip into the anonymous masses will never be other than members of the impersonal flock, having fled from themselves into self-deception. On the other hand our freedom obliges us to make something of ourselves, to live "authentically" or "truly". — Jostein Gaarder

The severance between us was surgical, and there was no anaesthetic.. — Jostein Gaarder

Nothing is ordirary. Sometimes people talk about 'an ordinary day'. This annoys me, because no two days are the same, and we have no idea how many more days of life we have left. Perhaps even worse than 'ordinary' hens or 'ordinary' days is talking about an 'ordinary' boy or girl. This is the sort of thing we say when we can't be bothered to get to know people better. — Jostein Gaarder

Wasn't it extraordinary to be in the world right now, wandering around in a wonderful adventure! — Jostein Gaarder

It is not easy for example to surgically remove a delusion — Jostein Gaarder

The world becomes a dream, and the dream becomes reality. — Jostein Gaarder

Not everybody can let himself drift along the flow of history. Some of us have to stop to pick up what's washed up on the banks of the river. — Jostein Gaarder

Was Jesus a christian? — Jostein Gaarder

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

The history of ideas is like a drama in many acts. — Jostein Gaarder

Sophie knew that 'modesty' was an old-fashioned word for shyness - for example, about being seen naked. But was it really natural to be embarrassed about that? If something was natural, she supposed, it was the same for everybody. In many parts of the world it was completely natural to be naked. So it must be society that decides what you can and can't do. When Grandma was young you certainly couldn't sunbathe topless. But today, most people think it is 'natural,' even though it is still strictly forbidden in lots of countries. Was this philosophy? Sophie wondered. — Jostein Gaarder

The philosopher had rescued her. The unknown letter writer had saved her from the triviality of everyday existence. — Jostein Gaarder

The next sentence was about true insight coming from within. But didn't all knowledge come into people's heads from the outside? On the other hand, Sophie could remember situations when her mother or the teachers at school had tried to teach her something that she hadn't been receptive to. And whenever she had really learned something, it was when she had somehow contributed to it herself. Now and then, even, she would suddenly a thing she'd drawn a total blank on before. That was probably what people meant by 'insight'. — Jostein Gaarder

Maybe the imagination creates what is new, but the imagination does not make the actual selection. The imagination does not "compose." A composition - and every work of art is one - is created in a wondrous interplay between imagination and reason, or between mind and reflection. For there will always be an element of chance in the creative process. You have to turn the sheep loose before you can start to herd them. — Jostein Gaarder

I am an extraordinary being, you think. I am a mysterious creature — 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

Wisest is she who knows she does not know. — Jostein Gaarder