Jostein Gaarder

“Kakva to nedokuciva sila ukrasava zemlju cvecem u svim duginim bojama, a nocna neba kiti raskosnim vezom treperavih zvezda?”

“Možda se nijedna druga vrsta intimnosti ne može uporediti sa dva polgeda koja se susreću sa istom sigurnošću i odlučnošću i jednostavnošću odbijaju da se puste.”

“Ladies and Gentlemen...we are floating in Space!”

“The stupidest thing she knew was for people to act like they knew all about the things they knew absolutely nothing about.”

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

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

“Kitalah planet yang hidup itu, Sophie! Kitalah kapal besar yang berlayar mengelilingi matahari yang membakar alam raya. Tapi kita masing-masing adalah juga sebuah kapal bermuatan gen-gen yang melayari kehidupan. Jika kita sudah membawa muatan ini dengan selamat ke pelabuhan berikut --berarti hidup kita tidak sia-sia.”

“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.”

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

“Love, your own witch-daughter, Queen of the Mirror and the Highest Protector of Irony”

“If I’d chosen never to the foot inside the great fairytale, I’d never have known what I’ve lost. Do you see what I’m getting at? Sometimes it’s worse for us human beings to lose something dear to us than never to have had it at all.”

“Aber ich weiss auch, dass es Gutes gibt. Ich weiss, dass zwischen zwei Abgruenden eine schoene Blume waechst und dass aus dieser Blume bald eine lebensfrohe Hummel auffliegen wird.”

“Ich habe Angst, Georg. ich habe Angst davor, aus dieser Welt verstossen zu werden. Ich habe Angst vor Abenden die diesem, die ich nicht leben darf.”

“Das Traurige ist, dass wir uns im Heranswachsen nicht nur an die Gesetze der Schwerkraft gewöhnen. Wir gewöhnen uns gleichzeitig an die Welt selber.”

“Yes, we too are stardust.”

“... the only thing we require to be good philosophers is the faculty of wonder...”

“When we gaze at a star in the Milky Way which is 50,000 light-years away from our sun, we are looking back 50,000 years in time.""The idea is much too big for my little head.""The only way we can look out into space, then, is to look back in time. We can never know what the universe is like now. We only know what it was like then. When we look up at a star that is thousands of light-years away, we are really traveling thousands of years back in the history of space.”

“But she who wins the lot of life must also draw the lot of death, since the lot of life is death”

“manusia begitu pandai dalam banyak hal, menemukan luar angkasa dan komposisi atom..namun itu tidak membuat kit alebih memahami akan diri kita yang sebenarnya”

“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”

“Memiliki hati nurani tidak sama dengan menggunakannya”

“Kita melahirkan dan dilahirkan oleh sebuah jiwa yang tidak kita kenalKita adalah teka-teki yang tak teterka oleh siapa pun. Kita adalah dongeng yang terperangkap dalam khayalannya sendiri.Kita adalah apa yang terus berjalan tanpa pernah tiba pada pengertian”

“...rasanya aku memahami segala sesuatu jauh lebih baik setelah aku sakit. Seolah-olah dunia ini terlihat lebih jelas ketika kita berada di tepiannya - Cecilia dan Malaikat Ariel”

“إنّي أراهن أن هناك آلافاً عديدة من التفاصيل التي يمكن أن تغيّر كل شيء إلى الحد الذي يجعلك لا تفهم أيّ شيء .”

“Ein Planet kreist aufgrund der Schwerkraft um die Sonne, und der Mond zieht das Meer an, und so entstehen Ebbe und Flut.'Das wuste ich sehr wohl, aber dann sagte er:Meinst du nicht, dass es auch eine Kraft geben muss, die uns aus dem Meer gezogen und uns Augen zum sehen und einem Kopf zum denken gegeben hat?'Ich wusste nicht, was ich sagen sollte, und deshalb zuckte ich nur mit den schultern.Ich wuesste gern, ob denen, die es nicht glauben, ein wichtiger sinn fehlt,' sagte Mika ganz zum schluss.”

“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.”

“Imagine that you were on the threshold of this fairytale, sometime billions of years ago when everything was created. And you were able to choose whether you wanted to be born to a life on this planet at some point. You wouldn’t know when you were going to be born, nor how long you’d live for, but at any event it wouldn’t be more than a few years. All you’d know was that, if you chose to come into the world at some point, you’d also have to leave it again one day and go away from everything. This might cause you a good deal of grief, as lots of people think that life in the great fairytale is so wonderful that the mere thought of it ending can bring tears to their eyes. Things can be so nice here that it’s terribly painful to think that at some point the days will run out. What would you have chosen, if there had been some higher power that had gave you the choice? Perhaps we can imagine some sort of cosmic fairy in this great, strange fairytale. What you have chosen to live a life on earth at some point, whether short or long, in a hundred thousand or a hundred million years? Or would you have refused to join in the game because you didn’t like the rules? (...) I asked myself the same question maybe times during the past few weeks. Would I have elected to live a life on earth in the firm knowledge that I’d suddenly be torn away from it, and perhaps in the middle of intoxicating happiness? (...) Well, I wasn’t sure what I would have chosen. (...) If I’d chosen never to the foot inside the great fairytale, I’d never have known what I’ve lost. Do you see what I’m getting at? Sometimes it’s worse for us human beings to lose something dear to us than never to have had it at all.”

“Imagine that one day you are out for a walk in the woods. Suddenly you see a small spaceship on the path in front of you. A tiny Martian climbs out the spaceship and stands on the ground looking up at you…What would you think? Never mind, it’s not important. But have you ever given any thought to the fact that you are a Martian yourself?It is obviously unlikely that you will ever stumble upon a creature from another planet. We do not even know that there is life on other planets. But you might stumble upon yourself one day. You might suddenly stop short and see yourself in a completely new light. On just such a walk in the woods. I am an extraordinary being, you think. I am a mysterious creature.You feel as if you are waking from an enchanted slumber. Who am I? you ask. You know that you are stumbling around on a planet in the universe. But what is the universe?If you discover yourself in this manner you will have discovered something as mysterious as the Martian we just mentioned. You will not only have seen a being from outer space. You will feel deep down that you are yourself an extraordinary being.”

“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.”

“A lot of people experience the world with the same incredulity as when a magician pulls a rabbit out of a hat.…We know that the world is not all sleight of hand and deception because we are in it, we are part of it. Actually we are the white rabbit being pulled out of the hat. The only difference beween us and the white rabbit is that the rabbit does not realize it is taking part in a magic trick.”

“So now you must choose... Are you a child who has not yet become world-weary? Or are you a philosopher who will vow never to become so? To children, the world and everything in it is new, something that gives rise to astonishment. It is not like that for adults. Most adults accept the world as a matter of course. 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. The only thing we require to be good philosophers is the faculty of wonder…”

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

“You might say that the very best that can happen is to have energetic opponents.”

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

“Where both reason and experience fall short, there occurs a vacuum that can be filled by faith.”

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

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

“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.”

“To prove religious faith by human reason is rationalistic claptrap.”

“We can be hindered in our development and our personal growth by political conditions. Outer circumstances can constrain us. Only when we are free to develop our innate abilities can we live as free beings. But we are just as much determined by inner potential and outer opportunities as the Stone Age boy on the Rhine, the lion in Africa, or the apple tree in the garden.”

“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.”

“Since the Renaissance, people have had to get used to living their life on a random planet in the vast galaxy.”

“It's not a silly question if you can't answer it.”

“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.”

“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.”

“People are, generally speaking, either dead certain or totally indifferent.”

“The most subversive people are those who ask questions.”