(As human beings) We see everything everything in a glass, darkly. Sometimes we can peer through the glass and catch a glimpse of what is on the other side. If we were to polish the glass clean, we'd see much more. But then we would no longer see ourselves.

Jostein Gaarder

Categorized in : Glasses Glimpse Peers

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

Jostein Gaarder

equality women doe

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

hydrogen-atom elephants cells

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

used people way

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

kissing love-you believe

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

astrology friday people

I am really more interested in questions than in giving answers.

Jostein Gaarder

answers giving

I've nothing against eye make-up and lipstick. But the fact is that we’re actually living on a planet in space. For me that’s an extraordinary thought. It’s mind-boggling just to think about the existence of space at all. But there are girls who can’t see the universe for eye liner.

Jostein Gaarder

girl eye thinking

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

life-is together world

An answer is always on the stretch of road that is behind you. Only a question can point the way forward.

Jostein Gaarder

way-forward behind-you answers

The most subversive people are those who ask questions.

Jostein Gaarder

subversive asks people

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

hunting white mean

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

sound-body balance mind

Wasn’t it extraordinary to be in the world right now, wandering around in a wonderful adventure!

Jostein Gaarder

wandering-around adventure world

There are five billion people living on this planet. But you fall in love with one particular person, and you won't swap her for any other.

Jostein Gaarder

planets falling-in-love people

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

one-day people thinking

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

persons relation needs

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

Jostein Gaarder

certain sociology people

Wisest is she who knows she does not know.

Jostein Gaarder

doe philosophy science

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

Jostein Gaarder

sky trying looks

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

Jostein Gaarder

renaissance used people