Jostein Gaarder Quotes - Page 2

When we sense something, it is due to the movement of atoms in space. When I see the moon it is because "moon atoms" penetrate my eye.

Wir werden alt und grau. Wir werden eines Tages verschlissen sein und aus der Welt verschwinden. Mit unseren Träumen ist das anders. Sie können in anderen Menschen weiterleben, wenn es uns schon längst, längst nicht mehr gibt.

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.

The truth is that I feel totally helpless, or totally inconsolable, to be more honest. I’m not trying to hide it, but it’s something you’re not to worry about.

A state that does not educate and train women is like a man who only trains his right arm.

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

We don't learn anything there [school]. The difference between schoolteachers and philosophers us that school-teachers think they know a lot of stuff that they try to force down our throats. Philosophers try to figure things out together with the pupils

Aber der Traum vom Unwahrscheinlichen hat einen eigenen Namen. Wir nennen ihn »Hoffnung«.

Was Jesus a christian?

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.

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.