Quotessence
Home / Authors / Hermann Hesse
Hermann Hesse

Hermann Hesse Quotes

Poet

Filter quotes by topic

AllWorldSteppenwolfSiddharthaMenDemianHermann HesseSoulLifePeopleSelf

Famous Hermann Hesse Quotes

“We must become so alone, so utterly alone, that we withdraw into our innermost self. It is a way of bitter suffering. But then our solitude is overcome, we are no longer alone, for we find that our innermost self is the spirit, that it is God, the indivisible. And suddenly we find ourselves in the midst of the world, yet undisturbed by its multiplicity, for our innermost soul we know ourselves to be one with all being.”

KnowsWorldWaySoulSelfSpiritSufferingLonelinessSolitudeOvercomingBitterMidstMultiplicityIndivisibleSpirit And Soul
Author:Hermann Hesse
Create image

“When someone is seeking, it happens quite easily that he only sees the thing that he is seeking; that he is unable to find anything, unable to absorb anything, because he is only thinking of the thing he is seeking, because he has a goal, because he is obsessed with his goal. Seeking means: to have a goal; but finding means: to be free, to be receptive, to have no goal. You, O worthy one, are perhaps indeed a seeker, for in striving towards your goal, you do not see many things that are under your nose.”

ThinkingMeanSaidHappensGoalFindingsStriveSeekingWorthyNosesObsessedOpennessSeekersReceptiveSiddhartha
Author:Hermann Hesse
Create image

“A soul that is ruined in the bud will frequently return to the springtime of its beginning and its promise-filled childhood, as though it could discover new hopes there and retie the broken threads of life. The shoots grow rapidly and eagerly, but it is only a sham life that will never be a genuine tree.”

SoulGrowsTreeChildhoodBrokenReturnPromiseFilledGenuineThreadRuinedBudSpringtimeNew HopeThreads Of Life
Book:Beneath the Wheel: A Novel
Create image

“Every man is more than just himself; he also represents the unique, the very special and always significant and remarkable point at which the world's phenomena intersect, only once in this way, and never again. That is why every man's story is important, eternal, sacred; that is why every man, as long as he lives and fulfills the will of nature, is wondrous, and worthy of consideration. In each individual the spirit has become flesh, in each man the creation suffers, within each one a redeemer is nailed to the cross.”

MenWorldWayLongImportantStoriesSpiritSufferingIndividualSpecialCreationEternalUniqueCrossesSacredWorthyFleshEvery ManSignificantConsiderationRemarkableWondrousRedeemerDemian
Author:Hermann Hesse
Create image

“If I know what love is, it is because of you.”

IfsKnowsLoveLifeLove IsLove YouTrue LoveCrushInspirational LoveRomantic LoveSoulmateOne LoveI Love YouWhat You LoveGreat LoveAnniversaryBest LoveBeing LovedHeart LoveI Love HimI Loved YouSay I Love YouPerfect LoveWhat Is LoveCute LoveShort LoveInspiring LoveTime And LoveMy Love For YouBecause Of YouLove For HerRomantic Love YouHearts And LoveRomantic I Love YouWay Of LoveTrue Love Is ForeverShort RomanticExpressing LoveI Love You BecauseShort Cute LoveHim And HerI Love You LikeShort Romantic LoveDeep RomanticCute RomanticShort And Sweet LoveSimply LoveShort Sweet LoveLove LineLove Being With YouRomantic CoupleTouching YouUnique LoveCute Sweet LoveShort Inspirational LoveTouching LoveGirl You LoveI Know You Love Me
Author:Hermann Hesse
Create image

“It may be important to great thinkers to examine the world, to explain and despise it. But I think it is only important to love the world, not to despise it, not for us to hate each other, but to be able to regard the world and ourselves and all beings with love, admiration and respect.”

ThinkingWorldLifeMayImportantAbleHateRegardAdmirationThinkerDespiseHippieSiddharthaGreat ThinkersAdmiration And Respect
Book:Siddhartha: An Indian Tale
Create image

“Most men will not swim before they are able to.' Is not that witty? Naturally, they won't swim! They are born for the solid earth, not for the water. And naturally they won't think. They are made for life, not for thought. Yes, and he who thinks, what's more, he who makes thought his business, he may go far in it, but he has bartered the solid earth for the water all the same, and one day he will drown.”

ThinkingMenMayMadeAbleEarthWaterBornOne DayWittySwimSteppenwolf
Author:Hermann Hesse
Create image

“To hold our tongues when everyone is gossiping, to smile without hostility at people and institutions, to compensate for the shortage of love in the world with more love in small, private matters; to be more faithful in our work, to show greater patience, to forgo the cheap revenge obtainable from mockery and criticism: all these are things we can do.”

PeopleWorldMatterShowsCan DoGreaterCriticismPatienceInstitutionsRevengeTongueFaithfulHostilityMockeryShortage
Author:Hermann Hesse
Create image

“The reason why I do not know anything about myself, the reason why Siddhartha has remained alien and unknown to myself is due to one thing, to one single thing--I was afraid of myself, I was fleeing from myself. I was seeking Atman, I was seeking Brahman, I was determined to dismember myself and tear away its layers of husk in order to find in its unknown innermost recess the kernel at the heart of those layers, the Atman, life, the divine principle, the ultimate. But in so doing, I was losing myself.”

KnowsHeartReasonOrderPrinciplesOne ThingTearsDivineLosingUltimateSeekingDeterminedDuesAliensReason WhyLayersFleeingRecessSiddharthaBrahmanKernelAtmanLosing Myself
Author:Hermann Hesse
Create image

“The diabolical thing about melancholy is not that it makes you ill but that it makes you conceited and shortsighted; yes almost arrogant. You lapse into bad taste, thinking of yourself as Heine's Atlas, whose shoulders support all the world's puzzles and agonies, as if thousands, lost in the same maze, did not endure the same agonies.”

IfsThinkingWorldLostSupportTasteEndureIllShouldersMelancholyArrogantAgonyPuzzlesMazesConceitedLapsesBad TasteAtlasDiabolicalThinking Of Yourself
Author:Hermann Hesse
Create image

“People know, or dimly feel, that if thinking is not kept pure and keen, and if respect for the world of mind is no longer operative, ships and automobiles will soon cease to run right, the engineer's slide rule and the computations of banks and stock exchanges will forfeit validity and authority, and chaos will ensue.”

PeopleIfsThinkingKnowsWorldFeelsMindRunningPureAuthorityChaosCeaseShipsEngineersSlidesAutomobileValidityForfeitComputationStock Exchange
Book:The Glass Bead Game: (Magister Ludi) A Novel
Create image

“A game master or teacher who was primarily concerned with being close enough to the "innermost meaning" would be a very bad teacher. To be candid, I myself, for example, have never in my life said a word to my pupils about the "meaning" of music; if there is one it does not need my explanations. On the other hand I have always made a great point of having my pupils count their eighths and sixteenths nicely. Whatever you become, teacher, scholar, or musician, have respect for the "meaning" but do not imagine that it can be taught.”

IfsNeedsDoeMadeSaidEnoughHandsWould BeGamesTeacherImagineExampleTaughtMastersMusicianConcernedExplanationScholarImagine ThatPupilsCandidBad Teacher
Book:The Glass Bead Game: (Magister Ludi) A Novel
Create image

“Man is an onion made up of a hundred integuments, a texture made up of many threads. The ancient Asiatics knew this well enough, and in the Buddhist Yoga an exact technique was devised for unmasking the illusion of the personality. The human merry-go-round sees many changes: the illusion that cost India the efforts of thousands of years to unmask is the same illusion that the West has labored just as hard to maintain and strengthen.”

MenYearsHumansWellsMadeHardEnoughEffortPersonalityCostIllusionHundredYogaIndiaWestRoundsAncientTechniqueBuddhistThreadTextureMerryOnionsMerry Go RoundUnmasking
Book:Steppenwolf: A Novel
Create image

“...Haller's sickness of the soul, as I now know, is not the eccentricity of a single individual, but the sickness of the times themselves, the neurosis of that generation to which Haller belongs, a sickness, it seems, that by no means attacks the weak and worthless only but, rather, precisely those who are strongest in spirit and richest in gifts.”

KnowsMeanSoulSeemsSpiritIndividualGenerationsWeakSicknessStrongestWorthlessNeurosisEccentricitySteppenwolf
Book:Steppenwolf: A Novel
Create image

“Each man had only one genuine vocation - to find the way to himself....His task was to discover his own destiny - not an arbitrary one - and to live it out wholly and resolutely within himself. Everything else was only a would-be existence, an attempt at evasion, a flight back to the ideals of the masses, conformity and fear of one's own inwardness.”

MenWayWould BeWorkExistenceDestinyMassIdealsTasksGenuineFlightConformityVocationArbitrarySynchronicityEvasion
Author:Hermann Hesse
Create image