“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.”
― Jostein Gaarder, quote from The Orange Girl
“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.”
― Jostein Gaarder, quote from The Orange Girl
“Life is short for those who are truly able to understand that one day the entire world will come to a complete end. Not everyone is capable of that. Not everyone has the ability to comprehend what going away for all eternity really implies. There are too many distractions, hour by hour, minute by minute, to hinder such an understanding.”
― Jostein Gaarder, quote from The Orange Girl
“We can't own each other's past. The question is whether we have a future together.”
― Jostein Gaarder, quote from The Orange Girl
“إنّي أراهن أن هناك آلافاً عديدة من التفاصيل التي يمكن أن تغيّر كل شيء إلى الحد الذي يجعلك لا تفهم أيّ شيء .”
― Jostein Gaarder, quote from The Orange Girl
“I'm not just some butterfly for you to catch.”
― Jostein Gaarder, quote from The Orange Girl
“Life is like a huge lottery in which only the winning tickets are visible.”
― Jostein Gaarder, quote from The Orange Girl
“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, quote from The Orange Girl
“كم من مرة تمنيت لو كنت عشت قبل اختراع جدول الضرب ، أو على الأقل قبل ميلاد الفيزياء والكيمياء المعاصرة ... أي قبل أن يصيبنا الغرور بأننا فهمنا كل شيء عن هذا العالم المفتون الحقيقي”
― Jostein Gaarder, quote from The Orange Girl
“إننا في هذا الوجود لا نملك إلا حيزاً محدوداً، بل لا نملك من الزمان فيه إلا ردحاً محدوداً أيضاً..
ولكن أيامنا هذه ما تزال ملكاً لنا، وما يزال أمامنا من الأوقات السعيدة الكثير مما يمكن أن نعيشه معاً " ص١٩”
― Jostein Gaarder, quote from The Orange Girl
“But the dream of something unlikely has its own special name. We call it hope.”
― Jostein Gaarder, quote from The Orange Girl
“إن أسوأ الأمور عندنا نحن بني آدم أن نفقد شيئا غاليا علينا , إنه أسوأ من أن لا نملكه أصلا”
― Jostein Gaarder, quote from The Orange Girl
“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.”
― Jostein Gaarder, quote from The Orange Girl
“لكن إذا كان أملي كبيرا دوماً، فقد كانت خيباتي في كل مرة أكبر”
― Jostein Gaarder, quote from The Orange Girl
“فالكبار يبدون دائما أكثر صبراً وجلداً وأكثر تحكماً في الزمن من الأطفال الذين يسعهم من الوقت حياة كاملة " ص٢٢”
― Jostein Gaarder, quote from The Orange Girl
“حين يمتلئ الدماغ أفكاراً قويه فإنه يجعلنا إما أن نقول شيئاً أو نظل صامتين”
― Jostein Gaarder, quote from The Orange Girl
“مع كل يوم يمر ، ومع كل نشاط صغير نقوم به سوف تتضاعف حظوظك في أن تذكرني”
― Jostein Gaarder, quote from The Orange Girl
“لقد قلت لك يوماً أن الضحك أكثر الأشياء إنتقالاً بالعدوى ، والحزن أيضا يمكن أن يكون كذلك، إلا الخوف فيتحمله كل واحد فينا بمفرده تقريبا”
― Jostein Gaarder, quote from The Orange Girl
“عمر الفضاء قديم جداً.. خمسة عشر ملياراً من السنين تقريبا . ورغم هذا العمر المديد لا أحد استطاع أن يقول لنا كيف نشأ هذا الفضاء لأول مرة . إننا جميعاً نعيش مغامره فريدة لا أحد يدرك سرها. إننا نرقص ونلعب ونثرثر ونضحك في عالم لا قدرة لنا على فهم بداياته الأولى”
― Jostein Gaarder, quote from The Orange Girl
“Aku terkesima betapa dunia adalah sebuah tempat yang indah. Sekali lagi aku mendapatkan perasaan euphoria terhadap segala sesuatu di sekitar diriku. Siapakah kita ini, yang selalu hidup di sini? Setiap orang di pelataran itu seperti sebuah harta karun hidup yang penuh dengan pikiran dan kenangan, impian dan keinginan. Aku terkurung di dalam kehidupan kecilku sendiri di bumi ini, tapi itu pun berlaku pada setiap orang lain di pelataran ini.”
― Jostein Gaarder, quote from The Orange Girl
“أيامنا هذه ما تزال ملكاً لنا ، وما يزال أمامنا من الأوقات السعيده الكثير مما يمكن أن نعيشه معاً”
― Jostein Gaarder, quote from The Orange Girl
“Ich glaube, ich habe gelächelt. Trotzdem sagte sie: »Wir können nicht die Vergangenheit des anderen besitzen, Jan Olav. Die Frage ist, ob wir eine gemeinsame Zukunft haben.«”
― Jostein Gaarder, quote from The Orange Girl
“تُرى كيف السبيل لأن نعرف أن لأرواحنا "لوحه جديده" أيضا ؟ لا أظن ذلك، لا أظنه حقا، لكن الحلم بشيء وهمي يحمل اسما. ذلك الوهم ندعوه أملاً”
― Jostein Gaarder, quote from The Orange Girl
“لا شيء ننساه من ذكريات الحياة أكثر مما ننسى قبل سن الرابعة !”
― Jostein Gaarder, quote from The Orange Girl
“Aber der Traum vom Unwahrscheinlichen hat einen eigenen Namen. Wir nennen ihn »Hoffnung«.”
― Jostein Gaarder, quote from The Orange Girl
“I've nothing against eye make-up and lipstick. But the fact is 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. And there are probably boys whose eyes are never raised above the horizon because of football. There can be quite a chasm between a small make-up mirror and a proper mirror telescope! I think it's what they call a 'matter of perspective'. Perhaps it could also be called an 'eye-opener' as well. It's never too late to experience an eye-opener. But many people live their entire lives without realizing that they're floating through empty space.
There's too much going on down here. It's hard enough thinking about your looks.
We belong on this earth. I'm not trying to dispute it. We're part of nature's life on this planet. Monkeys and reptiles have shown us how we breed, and I have no quarrel with that. In different natural surroundings everything might have been very different, but here we are. And I repeat: I'm not denying it. I just don't think that prevent us from trying to see a little beyond the ends of our noses.”
― Jostein Gaarder, quote from The Orange Girl
“Behaupte bloß nicht, die Natur sei kein Wunder. Erzähl mir bloß nicht, die Welt sei kein Märchen. Wer das nicht eingesehen hat, wird es vielleicht erst begreifen, wenn das Märchen sich bereits seinem Ende nähert. Denn dann bekommen wir eine letzte Möglichkeit, uns die Scheuklappen abzureißen, eine letzte Möglichkeit, uns diesem Wunder hinzugeben, von dem wir nun Abschied nehmen und das wir verlassen müssen.”
― Jostein Gaarder, quote from The Orange Girl
“Kakva to nedokuciva sila ukrasava zemlju cvecem u svim duginim bojama, a nocna neba kiti raskosnim vezom treperavih zvezda?”
― Jostein Gaarder, quote from The Orange Girl
Jostein Gaarder
Born place: in Oslo, Norway
Born date August 8, 1952
See more on GoodReads
“well', he said. 'most people aren't like you. They're locked up in themselves. They live in their castles - all alone. They're like me.'
'Well, everyone lives in his own castle', said Maude. 'But that's no reason not to lower the drawbridge and go out on visits.”
― Colin Higgins, quote from Harold and Maude
“I thought it would be a good thing to follow John Redmond’s words. I thought for my mother’s sake, her gentle soul, for the sake of my own children, I might go out and fight for to save Europe so that we might have the Home Rule in Ireland in the upshot. I came out to fight for a country that doesn’t exist, and now, Willie, mark my words, it never will.”
― Sebastian Barry, quote from A Long Long Way
“Bobby ran up on the deck and skidded to a stop in front of them. “It’s time for the Kowalski Fourth of July Football Game of Doom!”
Cat laughed and pushed herself out of her seat. “We’ll talk about this some other time, Emma. Go have fun.”
“I’m not sure I want to play football. Especially if there’s doom involved,” she said, but Bobby grabbed her hand and dragged her off the deck.
They were divvied up into teams roughly by size, each with an assortment of men, women and children. Emma was on Sean’s team, which was good. She’d just hide behind him, because the only thing she knew about football was that it involved a lot of hitting.
It only took a few plays to see that the Kowalskis played by their own rules and the few they had were fluid. Mostly they served to ensure the smaller kids didn’t get plowed over, victims of the adults’ competitive streak.
Five minutes into the game, Emma somehow ended up with the ball. She squealed and looked around for somebody—anybody—to hand it off to, but there was nobody. Well, there was Danny, but he was doubled over in laughter.
“Run, Emma,” Lisa yelled.
She ran in the direction her friend was frantically waving her hand, but she only went a few feet before two very strong arms wrapped around her waist and then she was falling. Luckily, she landed on a body instead of the ground.
“I love football,” Mitch said, grinning up at her.
Emma grimaced and managed to get one of her knees on solid ground so she could push herself to her feet. He was quicker and freed himself to stand and help her up.
“They should give you the ball more often,” he said, his blue eyes sparkling and the grin so like Sean’s—but not quite as naughty—in full force.
“Hands off my girl,” Sean told him, pulling on Emma’s elbow.
“You should do a better job of blocking for her.
“Let’s go,” Brian shouted.
The very next play, Mitch intercepted Mike’s pass to Evan and turned to run toward the other end zone. He was halfway there when Sean took him down hard. They hit the ground with a bone-jarring thud that made Emma wince, and came up pushing and shoving.
When Sean drew back his arm to throw the first punch, Mary blew her whistle from the sidelines. “Boys! Enough!”
Instead of heading straight for the huddle, Sean walked to Emma and pulled her into his arms for a hard, almost punishing caveman kiss that made her skin sizzle and her knees go wobbly. Then he glared at his brother for a few long seconds and went back to his team, leaving Emma standing there breathless and discombobulated.”
― Shannon Stacey, quote from Yours to Keep
“There are not too many fables about man's misuse of sunflower seeds.”
― Richard Brautigan, quote from The Tokyo-Montana Express
“plans if you were going to go with this woman? come here.”
― Dolen Perkins-Valdez, quote from Wench
Geek Love
84, Charing Cross Ro...
Pandemonium
The Gargoyle
The 7 Habits of High...
The Bridges of Madis...BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.
We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.
Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.
