Jostein Gaarder Quotes

I had therefore to remove knowledge, in order to make room for belief.

Where knowledge ends, religion begins.

Faith begins where Reason sinks exhausted.

Faith requires a leap; otherwise, it just becomes science.

I do not understand! I understand nothing! I cannot understand nor do I want to understand! I want to believe! To Believe!

The world is divided into men who have wit and no religion and men who have religion and no wit.

The word 'religion' is only a label. What lies behind that, the most important thing of all, is the word 'faith'. You either have faith, or you don't have faith, or you have degrees of faith - and if you have degrees of faith, then you become agnostic. You're kind of in-between, or you're on the fence.

It is not reason which makes faith hard, but life.

We all have our beliefs or our agnosticism.

Sometimes I really want to believe in God. I really admire, in a lot of ways, people who have faith. I think it must be a beautiful thing to believe.

But Charlie, Charlie, how can we ever really know anything? Charlie, what or who is God?

I don't believe in God, though I'm not prepared to call myself an atheist either. You know the old phrase: 'There are no atheists in foxholes.' I've never been in a foxhole, and if I ever find myself in a foxhole, I'll let you know if I believe in God or not.

By night an atheist half believes in a God.

I do not consider it an insult, but rather a compliment to be called an agnostic. I do not pretend to know where many ignorant men are sure - that is all that agnosticism means.

I am an agnostic; I do not pretend to know what many ignorant men are sure of.

You know, my faith is one that admits some doubt.

I do not pretend to know where many ignorant men are sure - that is all that agnosticism means.

He that will believe only what he can fully comprehend must have a long head or a very short creed.

Life is doubt, and faith without doubt is nothing but death.

Doubt is the offspring of knowledge: the savage never doubts at all.

Faith never makes a confession.

'Belief' means something that you do not know. You want to assume and bring a certainty to something that you do not know. That means you are concretising your ignorance. There is no need to believe anything.

The version I got of Christianity was quite confusing to me, even as a child, because there were certain things that didn't add up.

What do I believe? I do not know; I do not know; I do not know.

Faith embraces itself and the doubt about itself.