“Wisest is she who knows she does not know.”
― Jostein Gaarder, quote from Sophie's World
“It's not a silly question if you can't answer it.”
― Jostein Gaarder, quote from Sophie's World
“A state that does not educate and train women is like a man who only trains his right arm.”
― Jostein Gaarder, quote from Sophie's World
“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, quote from Sophie's World
“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, quote from Sophie's World
“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, quote from Sophie's World
“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…”
― Jostein Gaarder, quote from Sophie's World
“The most subversive people are those who ask questions.”
― Jostein Gaarder, quote from Sophie's World
“Wasn’t it extraordinary to be in the world right now, wandering around in a wonderful adventure!”
― Jostein Gaarder, quote from Sophie's World
“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, quote from Sophie's World
“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, quote from Sophie's World
“... the only thing we require to be good philosophers is the faculty of wonder...”
― Jostein Gaarder, quote from Sophie's World
“ان الحيوانات تولد حيوانات ... اما الانسان فلا تلده انسانا, بل تربيه ليصيح كذلك”
― Jostein Gaarder, quote from Sophie's World
“The stupidest thing she knew was for people to act like they knew all about the things they knew absolutely nothing about.”
― Jostein Gaarder, quote from Sophie's World
“Acting responsibly is not a matter of strengthening our reason but of deepening our feelings for the welfare of others.”
― Jostein Gaarder, quote from Sophie's World
“Where both reason and experience fall short, there occurs a vacuum that can be filled by faith.”
― Jostein Gaarder, quote from Sophie's World
“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.”
― Jostein Gaarder, quote from Sophie's World
“الأكثر ذكاء هو الذي يعرف أنه لا يعرف”
― Jostein Gaarder, quote from Sophie's World
“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, quote from Sophie's World
“A Russian astronaut and a Russian brain surgeon were once discussing religion. The brain surgeon was a Christian but the astronaut was not. The astronaut said, 'I've been out in space many times but I've never seen God or angels.' And the brain surgeon said, 'And I've operated on many clever brains but I've never seen a single thought.”
― Jostein Gaarder, quote from Sophie's World
“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.”
― Jostein Gaarder, quote from Sophie's World
“People are, generally speaking, either dead certain or totally indifferent.”
― Jostein Gaarder, quote from Sophie's World
“إن الميزة الوحيدة اللازمة لكي يصبح الإنسان فيلسوفاً جيداً هي قدرته على الدهشة”
― Jostein Gaarder, quote from Sophie's World
“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, quote from Sophie's World
“من المستحيل أن يكون الإنسان سعيداً إذا تصرف على عكس قناعاته”
― Jostein Gaarder, quote from Sophie's World
“إن الحياه محبطه و مأساويه, تتركنا ندخل عالماً رائعاً, نتلاقى, نتتعارف, نقطع معاً جزءا من الطريق, ثم نتوه عن بعضنا البعض, و نختفي بالسرعه ذاتها التي جئنا بها في المره الأولى”
― Jostein Gaarder, quote from Sophie's World
“من المستحيل أن نشعر أننا احياء إذا لم نفكر أيضا بأننا سنموت, كما أننا لا نستطيع التفكير بموتنا دون أن نحس و في اللحظه نفسها بالمعجزه الغريبه معجزة كوننا أحياء.”
― Jostein Gaarder, quote from Sophie's World
“Socrates, whose mother was a midwife, used to say that his art was like the art of the midwife. She does not herself give birth to the child, but she is there to help during its delivery. Similarly, Socrates saw his task as helping people to 'give birth' to correct insight, since real understanding must come from within. . . . Everybody can grasp philosophical truths if they just use their innate reason.”
― Jostein Gaarder, quote from Sophie's World
Jostein Gaarder
Born place: in Oslo, Norway
Born date August 8, 1952
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“The eyes of a man who was all man.
And they were wet.
Oh my fraking God.
His hand came to my jaw, cupping it, his thumb sweeping across my cheekbone but he didn't watch his thumb. His eyes never left mine and he didn't hide it, he didn't fight it.
I gave him my virginity.
He gave that to me.
It was the most beautiful gift I'd ever received.
Then he whispered, "I wanna see to you. Will you let me do that, Faye?"
I'd let him do anything.
Anything.
Even though I had no idea what he was talking about.
"Yes," I answered.
His head dropped and, his lips on mine, he whispered, "Thank you."
Then he touched his mouth to mine, gently, slowly slid out and he saw to me.”
― Kristen Ashley, quote from Breathe
“Whether one believes that the faith he spawned is the world's only true religion or a preposterous fable, Joseph emerges from the fog of time as one of the most remarkable figures ever to have breathed American air. "Whatever his lapses," Harold Bloom argues in The American Religion, "Smith was an authentic religious genius, unique in our national history.... In proportion to his importance and his complexity, he remains the least-studied personage, of an undiminished vitality, in our entire national sage.”
― Jon Krakauer, quote from Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith
“علمني السجن أن الإنسان أقوى من الظلم والقهر والطغيان والحرمان والتعذيب والمستحيل.”
― Malika Oufkir, quote from Stolen Lives: Twenty Years in a Desert Jail
“But it’s better to loosen up as you go or you risk turning brittle.”
― Kate Jacobs, quote from The Friday Night Knitting Club
“Faolan launched himself across the bridge, uttering a prayer to any deity that might be prepared to listen. "Let me reach her in time, let her keep hold, let this wretched apology for a bridge not crumble under my feet...”
― Juliet Marillier, quote from The Well of Shades
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