Hermann Hesse Quotes

Is not every life, every work fine?

Knowledge can be communicated, but not wisdom.

Art is contemplation of the world in a state of grace and imaginatively reflecting that subjective understanding.

Friendship is identification and difference

What is the holding of breath? It is a flight from the Self, it is a temporary escape from the torment of Self. It is a temporary palliative against the pain and folly of life.

At that time two opposing concepts of the Game called forth commentary and discussion. The foremost players distinguished two principal types of Game, the formal and the psychological.

lucid and quiet his voice hovered above the listeners, like a light, like a starry sky.

In fear I hurried this way and that. I had the taste of blood and chocolate in my mouth, the one as hateful as the other.

Everything is necessary, everything needs only my agreement, my assent, my loving understanding; then all is well with me and nothing can harm me.

It was lovely, and tempting, to exert power over men and to shine before others, but power also had its perditions and perils.

That seems to be the way of things. Everyone takes, everyone gives. Life is like that.

The world, as it is now, wants to die, wants to perish — and it will.

You should never be afraid of people... such fear can destroy us completely. You've simply got to get rid of it, if you want to turn into someone decent. You understand that, don't you?

Without a mother, one cannot love. Without a mother, one cannot die.

I have no desire to walk on water," said Siddhartha. "Let the old shamans satisfy themselves with such skills".

I had grown a thin mustache, I was a full-grown man, and yet I was completely helpless and without a goal in life.

I shall begin my story with an experience I had when I was ten and attended our small town's Latin school.

Everyone gives what he has. The soldier gives strength, the merchant goods, the teacher instruction, the farmer rice, the fisherman fish.

Our god's name is Abraxas and he is God and Satan and he contains both the luminous and the dark world.

I sped through heaven and saw god at work. I suffered holy pains. I dropped all my defenses and was afraid of nothing in the world. I accepted all things and to all things I gave up my heart.

He brooded on how close destruction always was to all creatures, animals as well as humans, and he realized that there is nothing we can predict or know for certain in this world except death.

Love must not entreat, ' she added, 'or demand. Love must have the strength to become certain within itself. Then it ceases merely to be attracted and begins to attract.

In eternity there is no time, only an instant long enough for a joke.

Both the thoughts and the senses were pretty things, the ultimate meaning was hidden behind both of them... from both the secret voices of the innermost truth had to be attentively perceived.

Ich werde stehen und warten.Ich werde müde werden.Ich werde nicht einschlafen.Ich werde sterben.

Faith is stronger than so-called reason.

Was then not all sorrow in time, all self-torment and fear in time? Were not all difficulties and evil in the world conquered as soon as one conquered time, as soon as one dispelled time?

Every true reader could, even if not one new book were published, spend decades and centuries studying on, fighting on, continuing to rejoice in the treasure of those already at hand.

...your tranquil yes to the changing over into the formless void of the unlimited.

Everyone can perform magic, everyone can reach his goals, ifhe is able to think, if he is able to wait, if he is able to fast.

I had considered myself some kind of genius and had considerably underestimated the toils and difficulties encountered along the path to an art.

. . . nobody will obtain salvation by means of teachings!

Within yourself is a stillness and a sanctuary to which you can retreat at any time and be yourself.

To hear for the duration of a heartbeat the universe and the totality of life in its mysterious, innate harmony.

The mind cannot live in nature, only against nature, only as its counterpart.

Like animals we call to each other, " was the thought that came to him as he remembered the hour of love in the afternoon.

There's no reality except the one contained within us. That's why so many people live an unreal life. They take images outside them for reality and never allow the world within them to assert itself.

But if you were to die ten times for him, you would not alter his destiny in the slightest

The world was beautiful when looked at in this way—without any seeking, so simple, so childlike.

Nothing in the world is more distasteful to a man than to follow the path that leads to himself.

He sat thus, lost in meditation, thinking Om, his soul as the arrow directed at Brahman.

Be aware of too much wisdom!

Most men will not swim before they are able to.

It is easier to bear the worries of wandering than to find peace in your hometown, where only the sage can live in a happy house surrounded by trite troubles and daily distractions.

Home is neither here nor there. Home is within you, or home is nowhere at all.

Here in this endless and gleaming wildernessI was removed farther than ever from the world of men --And I never saw so close and so clearlyThe image in the mirror of my own soul.

To deal with history [life] means to abandon one's self to chaos but to retain a belief in the ordination and the meaning. It is a very serious task.

desires are not killed by fulfilling them

Fate and character are different names for the same idea.

Never again!" commanded his will. "Again! Tomorrow!" begged his heart.