Quotes from The Solitaire Mystery: A Novel About Family and Destiny

“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, quote from The Solitaire Mystery: A Novel About Family and Destiny

“A joker is a little fool who is different from everyone else. He's not a club, diamond, heart, or spade. He's not an eight or a nine, a king or a jack. He is an outsider. He is placed in the same pack as the other cards, but he doesn't belong there. Therefore, he can be removed without anybody missing him.”
― Jostein Gaarder, quote from The Solitaire Mystery: A Novel About Family and Destiny

“When you realize there is something you don't understand, then you're generally on the right path to understanding all kinds of things.”
― Jostein Gaarder, quote from The Solitaire Mystery: A Novel About Family and Destiny

“As long as we are children, we have the ability to experience things around us--but then we grow used to the world. To grow up is to get drunk on sensory experience.”
― Jostein Gaarder, quote from The Solitaire Mystery: A Novel About Family and Destiny

“Our lives are part of a unique adventure... Nevertheless, most of us think the world is 'normal' and are constantly hunting for something abnormal--like angels or Martians. But that is just because we don't realize the world is a mystery. As for myself, I felt completely different. I saw the world as an amazing dream. I was hunting for some kind of explanation of how everything fit together.”
― Jostein Gaarder, quote from The Solitaire Mystery: A Novel About Family and Destiny

“There is always Joker to see through the delusion. Generation succeeds generation, but there is a fool walking the earth who is never ravaged by time.”
― Jostein Gaarder, quote from The Solitaire Mystery: A Novel About Family and Destiny

“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, quote from The Solitaire Mystery: A Novel About Family and Destiny

“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, quote from The Solitaire Mystery: A Novel About Family and Destiny

“Although you may not stumble across a Martian in the garden, you might stumble across yourself. The day that happens, you'll probably also scream a little. And that'll be perfectly all right, because it's not every day you realize you're a living planet dweller on a little island in the universe.”
― Jostein Gaarder, quote from The Solitaire Mystery: A Novel About Family and Destiny

“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.”
― Jostein Gaarder, quote from The Solitaire Mystery: A Novel About Family and Destiny

“I don't belong anywhere.
I am neither a heart, a diamond, a club, nor a spade. I am neither a King, a Jack, an Eight, nor an Ace.
As I am here - I am merely the Joker, and who that is I have had to find out for myself.

Every time I toss my head, the jingling bells remind me that I have no family.
I have no number - and no trade either.
I have gone around observing your activities from the outside.
Because of this I have also been able to see things to which you have been blind.

Every morning you have gone to work, but you have never been fully awake.
It is different for the Joker, because he was put into this world with a flaw:
he sees too deeply and too much.


Truth is a lonely thing.”
― Jostein Gaarder, quote from The Solitaire Mystery: A Novel About Family and Destiny

“If just one of [those people] experiences life as a crazy adventure--and I mean that he, or she, experiences this every single day... Then he or she is a joker in a pack of cards.”
― Jostein Gaarder, quote from The Solitaire Mystery: A Novel About Family and Destiny

“I have gone around observing your activities from the outside. Because of this I have also been able to see things to which you have been blind... Every morning you have gone to work, but you have never been fully awake. Of course, you have seen the sun and the moon, the stars in the sky, and everything that moves, but you haven't really seen it at all. It is different for the Joker, because he was put into this world with a flaw: He sees too clearly and too much.”
― Jostein Gaarder, quote from The Solitaire Mystery: A Novel About Family and Destiny

“It is different for us mortals. We are the ones who become old and grey. We are the ones who become worn at the seams and disappear. But not our dreams. They can live on in other people even after we have gone.”
― Jostein Gaarder, quote from The Solitaire Mystery: A Novel About Family and Destiny

“a sensation is always the same as a piece of news, and a piece of news never lives long.”
― Jostein Gaarder, quote from The Solitaire Mystery: A Novel About Family and Destiny

“If our brains were as simple as we could understand them, than we would be so stupid that we couldn't understand them again.”
― Jostein Gaarder, quote from The Solitaire Mystery: A Novel About Family and Destiny

“We are thrown together with a sprinkling of stardust.”
― Jostein Gaarder, quote from The Solitaire Mystery: A Novel About Family and Destiny

“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, quote from The Solitaire Mystery: A Novel About Family and Destiny

“اگر مغز ما آن قدر ساده بود که می‌توانستیم آن را درک کنیم، آن قدر احمق می‌بودیم که به هیچ وجه نمی‌توانستیم آن را درک کنیم.”
― Jostein Gaarder, quote from The Solitaire Mystery: A Novel About Family and Destiny

“What do you learn in school, Hans Thomas?” Dad asked. “To sit still,” I replied. “It’s so difficult that we spend many years learning to do it.”
― Jostein Gaarder, quote from The Solitaire Mystery: A Novel About Family and Destiny

“• هر کسی آزاد است درباره‌ی هرچیزی که دوست دارد خیال بافی کند، اما وظیفه دارد موجودات خیالی خود را ازین واقعیت آگاه کند که آن‌ها خیالی بیش نیستند. در غیر این صورت آن‌ها را دست انداخته، و آن‌ها حق دارند او را بکشند.”
― Jostein Gaarder, quote from The Solitaire Mystery: A Novel About Family and Destiny

“But Dad said we had to try, because neither he or I could bear the thought of living the rest of our lives without her.”
― Jostein Gaarder, quote from The Solitaire Mystery: A Novel About Family and Destiny

“I don't belong anywhere.
I am neither a heart, a diamond, a club, nor a spade. I am neither a King, a Jack, an Eight, nor an Ace.
As I am here - I am merely the Joker, and who that is I have had to find out for myself.”
― Jostein Gaarder, quote from The Solitaire Mystery: A Novel About Family and Destiny

“• خودت را یک نیشگون بگیر تا مطمئن شوی که حقیقت داری.”
― Jostein Gaarder, quote from The Solitaire Mystery: A Novel About Family and Destiny

“• فکر می‌کنم درباره‌ی ساختمان فضای خارج از جو زمین بیشتر اطلاع دارم، تا علت رفتن این زن، بدون آنکه دلیلی برای این کارش بیاورد.”
― Jostein Gaarder, quote from The Solitaire Mystery: A Novel About Family and Destiny

“كيف نستطيع أن نعيش علي هذه الأرض ونحن نغمض عيوننا أو أن نجد الحياة أمراً بديهياً؟”
― Jostein Gaarder, quote from The Solitaire Mystery: A Novel About Family and Destiny

“أعتقد أننا لسنا وحدنا يا ولدي، إيه أبدا لا. إن الكون يفيض بالحياة والمشكلة الوحيدة هي أننا لن نعرف أبدا ما إن كنا الكائنات الحية الوحيدة أم لا. المجرات هي مثل جزر مهجورة دون أن يكون هناك سفينة تربط بينها”
― Jostein Gaarder, quote from The Solitaire Mystery: A Novel About Family and Destiny

“تو در واقع با خودت و فرصت به دنیا آمدنت در هزار سال بعد می‌جنگیده‌ای.”
― Jostein Gaarder, quote from The Solitaire Mystery: A Novel About Family and Destiny

“• من هر روز صبح با یک صدای بنگ بیدار می‌شوم. طوری که حس می‌کنم واقعیت زنده بودن در من تزریق می‌شود؛ من شخصیتی در یک قصه‌ی پریان و سرشار از زندگی هستم. زیرا مگر ما که هستیم؟ می‌توانی به من بگویی؟ ما از تجمع ذرات کوچک غبار ستارگان پدید آمده‌ایم. و این چیست؟ این جهان از کدام جهنمی‌ آمده است؟”
― Jostein Gaarder, quote from The Solitaire Mystery: A Novel About Family and Destiny

“The memories float further and further away from that which once created them.”
― Jostein Gaarder, quote from The Solitaire Mystery: A Novel About Family and Destiny

About the author

Popular quotes

“Lessers were fewer and farther between now than ever, and there had been sightings, by others in the Brotherhood, of a very different kind of foe.”
― J.R. Ward, quote from Blood Vow

“Maria, báu vật của ông!
Tạm biệt cháu.
Hãy yêu quý bà, bố và mẹ, hãy trở thành một cô gái tuyệt vời để không xấu hổ với cái tên Đức Mẹ.
Ryuzo”
― Banana Yoshimoto, quote from Tsugumi

“To quote Voltaire, ‘Our wretched species is so made that those who walk on the well-trodden path always throw stones at those who are showing a new road.”
― Julie McElwain, quote from A Murder in Time

“Do I need to remind Mummy of the petunias? - Ariadne, to her father”
― Sophie Cleverly, quote from The Dance in the Dark

“Ex ‘Fleet man?”
“He was a full Commander, last I heard, sir.”
“Interesting.” Falconer commented. “Get me his specs. If I have to take him aboard my ship, I want to know all about him.”
She swallowed. “Yes sir.”
Falconer returned his attention to Nordyke.
“What’s their location?”
“They’re about a week outside the Hermes system, Captain.”
“Helm, set a course – best possible speed!”
“Um – sir, we’re on conversion drive at the moment.” The helmsman reported.
“I know, Linson – d’you think I’m senile?”
“No, sir – I…” The young helmsman stammered.
“I did say ‘best possible speed’, didn’t I?”
“Yes, sir.”
― Christina Engela, quote from Blachart

Interesting books

About BookQuoters

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.