A composition—and every work of art is one—is created in a wondrous interplay between imagination and reason, or between mind and reflection. For there will always be an element of chance in the creative process.

— Jostein Gaarder

Acting responsibly is not a matter of strengthening our reason but of deepening our feelings for the welfare of others.

— Jostein Gaarder

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

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. Furthermore, he is an outsider. Furthermore, 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

All a man can see while looking at the sky are cosmic fossils of thousands and millions of years ago. The only thing an astrologer can predict, is the past.

— Jostein Gaarder

A lot of people experience the world with the same incredulity as when a magician pulls a rabbit out of a hat.… We know that the world is not all sleight of hand and deception because we are in it, we are part of it. Actually we are the white rabbit being pulled out of the hat. The only difference between us and the white rabbit is that the rabbit does not realize it is taking part in a magic trick.

— Jostein Gaarder

Although I've always been easily led by my imagination, I was, and I remain, a rational person.

— Jostein Gaarder

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

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

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