Herman Hesse

Germany
2 Jul 1877 // 9 Aug 1962
Writer

Quotes

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That is just what life is when it is beautiful and happy - a game! Naturally, one can also do all kinds of other things with it, make a duty of it, or a battleground, or a prison, but that does not make it any prettier.

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

Siddhartha
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.

The Glass Bead Game
No, a true seeker could not accept any teachings, not if he sincerely wished to find something. But he who had found, could give his approval to every path, to every goal; nothing separated him from all the other thousands who lived in eternity, who breathed the Divine.

Siddhartha
After so many years of foolishness, you have once again had an idea, have done something, have heard the bird in your chest singing and have followed it.

Siddhartha
The way to innocence, to the uncreated and to God leads on, not back, not back to the wolf or to the child, but ever further into sin, ever deeper into human life.

Steppenwolf
The world had been divided into two parts that sought to annihilate each other because they both desired the same thing, namely the liberation of the oppressed, the elimination of violence, and the establishment of permanent peace.

The Fairy Tales
Nothing was, nothing will be, everything has reality and presence.

Siddhartha
People like best what is hard for them to obtain.

Gertrude
Knowledge can be conveyed, but not wisdom. It can be found, it can be lived, it is possible to be carried by it, miracles can be performed with it, but it cannot be expressed in words and taught.

Siddhartha
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On Anger: "For every minute you remain angry, you give up sixty seconds of peace of mind."
Essays
On Destiny: "Our destiny exercises its influence over us even when, as yet, we have not learned its nature: it is our future that lays down the law of our today."
Human, All Too Human
On Friendship: "A crowd is not company; and faces are but a gallery of pictures; and talk but a tinkling cymbal, where there is no love."
Essays