It was all too easy to make things up, it was like skating on thin ice, it was like doing dainty pirouettes on a brittle crust over water thousands of fathoms deep. Jostein Gaarder More Quotes by Jostein Gaarder More Quotes From Jostein Gaarder Love, your own witch-daughter, Queen of the Mirror and the Highest Protector of Irony Jostein Gaarder daughter queens love-you 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 cities law men 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. Jostein Gaarder asking-why borders world the very best that can happen is to have energetic opponents. The more extreme they become, the more powerful the reaction they will have to face. Jostein Gaarder opponents powerful faces Every single morning I wake with a bang,' he said. 'It's as though the fact that I am alive is injected into me; I am a character in a fairytale, bursting with life. Jostein Gaarder bangs morning character He could very likely have appealed for leniency. At least he could have saved his life by agreeing to leave Athens. But had he done this he would not have been Socrates. He valued his conscience--and the truth-- higher than life. Jostein Gaarder athens leniency done The soul yearns to fly home on the wings of love to the world of ideas. It longs to be freed from the chains of the body. Jostein Gaarder home wings ideas Perhaps the clock hands had become so tired of going in the same direction year after year that they had suddenly begun to go the opposite way instead. Jostein Gaarder tired hands years No day is alike - I do many other things, and I'm very active in the environmental movement. Jostein Gaarder day things environmental active