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Hermann Hesse

Hermann Hesse Quotes

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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.”

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Author:Hermann Hesse
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“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
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“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
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“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
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“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
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“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
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“There were now and then, though rarely, the hours that brought the welcome shock, pulled down the walls and brought me back again from my wanderings to the living heart of the world. Sadly and yet deeply moved, I set myself to recall the last of these experiences. It was at a concert of lovely old music. After two of three notes of the piano the door was opened of a sudden to the other 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.”

WorldHeartTwoPainLastsThreeHeavenHoursSawsDoorsWallMy HeartHolyAll ThingsMovedNotesDefenseAcceptedLovelyWelcomeWanderPianoShockConcertsNow And ThenRecallsGave UpOther WorldsBack AgainOld MusicSped
Author:Hermann Hesse
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“...Every ego so far from being a unity is in the highest degree a manifold world, a constellated heaven, a chaos of forms, of states and stages, of inheritances and potentialities. It appears to be a necessity as imperative as eating and breathing for everyone to be forced to regard this chaos as a unity and to speak of his ego as though is was a one-fold and clearly detached and fixed phenomenon. Even the best of us shares this delusion.”

WorldStatesFormSpeakHeavenShareStageEgoDegreesEatingHighestRegardUnityChaosBreathingFixedDelusionPhenomenonInheritanceImperativesFoldsDetachedManifold
Book:Steppenwolf
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“She stood before him and surrendered herself to him and sky, forest, and brook all came toward him in new and resplendent colors, belonged to him, and spoke to him in his own language. And instead of merely winning a woman he embraced the entire world and every star in heaven glowed within him and sparkled with joy in his soul. He had loved and had found himself. But most people love to lose themselves.”

PeopleWorldLoveSoulAgeJoyFoundWinningLanguageHeavenStarsLosesSkyColorForestsSpokesBrooks
Book:Ernest Hemingway, Knut Hamsun [and] Hermann Hesse
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“Whether it is good or evil, whether life in itself is pain or pleasure, whether it is uncertain-that it may perhaps be this is not important-but the unity of the world, the coherence of all events, the embracing of the big and the small from the same stream, from the same law of cause, of becoming and dying.”

WorldMayImportantBigsPainLawEvilCausesPleasureDyingEventsBecomingUnityStreamsUncertainCoherenceSiddhartha
Book:Siddhartha: An Indian Tale
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“I am a star in the firmament that observe the world, despises the world and consumed in its heat. I am the sea by night in a storm the sea shouting that accumulates new sins and to the ancient makes recompense. I am exiled from your world of pride polite, by pride defrauded, I am the king without crown. I am the passion without words without stones of the hearth, without weapons in the war, is my same force that make me sick”

WorldWarNightPassionForceStarsSinSeaPrideKingsWeaponsStonesSickAncientStormHeatDespiseCrownsPoliteConsumedShoutingFirmamentRecompense
Author:Hermann Hesse
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“He saw merchants trading, princes hunting, mourners wailing for their dead, whores offering themselves, physicians trying to help the sick, priests determining the most suitable day for seeding, lovers loving, mothers nursing their children—and all of this was not worthy of one look from his eye, it all lied, it all stank, it all stank of lies, it all pretended to be meaningful and joyful and beautiful, and it all was just concealed putrefaction. The world tasted bitter. Life was torture”

WorldTryingLooksChildrenHelpingEyeBeautifulLyingMotherSawsLoversSickWorthyMeaningfulBitterTortureHis EyesPriestsHuntingOfferingJoyfulPhysiciansTradingLiedNursingConcealedSuitableMerchantsNot WorthyWailingLoving Mother
Author:Hermann Hesse
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“What I am in search of is not so much the gratification of a curiosity or a passion for worldly life, but something far less conditional. I do not wish to go out into the world with an insurance policy in my pocket guaranteeing my return in the event of a disappointment, like some cautious traveller who would be content with a brief glimpse of the world. On the contrary, I desire that there should be hazards, difficulties and dangers to face; I am hungry for reality, for tasks and deeds, and also for privation and suffering.”

WorldShouldRealityWould BeFacesDesireSufferingPassionWishEventsDangerPolicyReturnTasksDifficultyCuriosityDisappointmentDeedsContraryHungryPocketsWorldlyGlimpseGratificationCautiousTravellerHazardsWorldly LifeConditionalInsurance Policy
Book:Magister Ludi
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“The world was so beautiful when regarded like this, without searching, so simply, in such a childlike way. Moons and stas were beautiful, beautiful were bank and stream, forest and rocks, goat and gold-bug, flower and butterfly. So lovely, so delightful to go through the world this way, so like a child, awake, open to what is near, without distrust.”

WorldWayChildrenBeautifulRocksFlowerMoonGoldLovelyForestsAwakeStreamsButterflyDelightfulDistrustBugsGoatsChildlike
Book:Siddhartha
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“He looked around, as if he was seeing the world for the first time. Beautiful was the world, colorful was the world, strange and mysterious was the world! Here was blue, here was yellow, here was green, the sky and the river flowed, the forest and the mountains were rigid, all of it was beautiful, all of it was mysterious and magical, and in its midst was he, Siddhartha, the awakening one, on the path to himself.”

IfsWorldFirstsBeautifulPathSeeingSkyStrangeMountainFirst TimeRiversBlueGreenAwakeningForestsMysteriousMidstYellowColorfulSeeing The WorldSiddhartha
Book:Siddhartha
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