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

A state that does not educate and train women is like a man who only trains his right arm.

— Jostein Gaarder

A true philosopher must never give up.

— Jostein Gaarder

But if the history of mankind was her own history, in a way she was thousands of years old.

— Jostein Gaarder

But if two people do almost nothing except search for one another, it's hardly surprising if they run across each other by chance.

— Jostein Gaarder

But sorrow can also be contagious. Fear is different. It isn't as communicable as laughter or sadness, and a good thing too. Fear is almost entirely a lonely thing.

— Jostein Gaarder

But the dream of something unlikely has its own special name. We call it hope.

— Jostein Gaarder

But understanding will always require some effort. You probably wouldn't admire a friend who was good at everything if it cost her no effort.

— Jostein Gaarder

But what is a person, George? How much is a person worth? Are we nothing but dust that is whipped up and spread to the winds?

— Jostein Gaarder

Even though God could create all kinds of things, he could hardly create himself before he had a "self" to create with. So there was only one possibility left: God had always existed. But she had already rejected that possibility! Everything that existed had to have a beginning.

— Jostein Gaarder