Authors:

A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
K
L
M
N
O
P
Q
R
S
T
U
V
W
X
Y
Z

Hermann Hesse Quotes - Page 6

All Quotes Age Aliens Art Birth Chaos Character Childhood Children Contentment Culture Destiny Doubt Dying Earth Eternity Evil Fate Feelings Fighting Giving Grace Happiness Harmony Hate Heart Heaven Home House Hurt Independence Inspirational Journey Joy Judging Knowledge Life Literature Love Lying Madness Magic Morning Myth Pain Passion Past Peace Perfection Pleasure Rain Reality Responsibility Running School Sleep Solitude Sorrow Soul Spring Strength Struggle Suffering Teaching Time Today Travel Truth Understanding Unity Waiting Wall War Water Wisdom Writing Yoga

Chaos demands to be recognized and experienced before letting itself be converted into a new order.

Chaos demands to be recognized and experienced before letting itself be converted into a new order.

Order, Demand, Chaos

But of all the water's secrets, he saw today only a single one-one that struck his soul. He saw that this water flowed and flowed, it was constantly flowing, and yet it was always there; it was always eternally the same and yet new at every moment! Oh, to be able to grasp this, to understand this!

Water, Soul, Secret

I suddenly saw how sad and artificial my life had been during this period, for the loves, friends, habits and pleasures of these years were discarded like badly fitting clothes. I parted from them without pain and all that remained was to wonder that I could have endured them so long.

Pain, Years, Clothes

Hermann Hesse (1969). “Gertrude”

And some day there will be nothing left of everything that has twisted my life and grieved it and filled me so often with such anguish. Some day, with the last exhaustion, peace will come and the motherly earth will gather me back home. It won't be the end of things, only a way of being born again, a bathing and a slumbering where the old and the withered sink down, where the young and new begin to breathe. Then, with other thoughts, I will walk along streets like these, and listen to streams, and overhear what the sky says in the evening, over and over and over.

Home, Sky, Earth

Hermann Hesse (1980). “Six Novels: With Other Stories and Essays”

I believe that I am not responsible for the meaningfulness or meaninglessness of life, but that I am responsible for what I do with the life I've got.

Believe, Meaning Of Life, Responsible

It is not for me to judge another man's life. I must judge, I must choose, I must spurn, purely for myself. For myself, alone.

Humility, Men, Judging

The world is not imperfect or slowly evolving along a long path to perfection. No, it is perfect at every moment; every sin already carries grace within it, all small children are potential old men, all sucklings have death within them, all dying people — eternal life.

Perfect, Grace, World

"Siddhartha".

What he had not learned, however, was this: to find contentment in himself and his own life

Contentment, Steppenwolf

Steppenwolf pt. 1 (1927)

Without words, without writing and without books there would be no history, there could be no concept of humanity.

Book, Writing, Humanity

Gaze into the fire, into the clouds, and as soon as the inner voices begin to speak... surrender to them. Don't ask first whether it's permitted, or would please your teachers or father or some god. You will ruin yourself if you do that.

Teacher, Truth, Father

Ernest Hemingway, Knut Hamsun, Hermann Hesse (1971). “Ernest Hemingway, Knut Hamsun [and] Hermann Hesse”

The greatest threat to our world and its peace comes from those who want war, who prepare for it, and who, by holding out vague promises of future peace or by instilling fear of foreign aggression, try to make us accomplices to their plans.

Peace, War, Our World

There is truth, my boy. But the doctrine you desire, absolute, perfect dogma that alone provides wisdom, does not exist. Nor should you long for a perfect doctrine, my friend. Rather, you should long for the perfection of yourself. The deity is within you, not in ideas and books. Truth is lived, not taught.

Book, Boys, Ideas

Hermann Hesse (2002). “The Glass Bead Game: (Magister Ludi) A Novel”, p.83, Macmillan

Trees are sanctuaries. Whoever knows how to speak to them, whoever knows how to listen to them, can learn the truth. They do not preach learning and precepts, they preach, undeterred by particulars, the ancient law of life.

Life, Law, Tree

Hermann Hesse (1980). “Six Novels: With Other Stories and Essays”

You show the world as a complete, unbroken chain, an eternal chain, linked together by cause and effect.

Siddhartha, Together, Unbroken

Hermann Hesse (2015). “Siddhartha: An Indian Tale”, p.28, Om Books International

Age is a state of mind. Youth and age exist only among the ordinary people. All the more talented and exceptional of us; are sometimes old, just as we are sometimes happy, and sometimes sad.

People, Mind, Age

Only the ideas that we really live have any value.

Freedom, Ideas, Literature

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.

Love, Stars, Winning

Ernest Hemingway, Knut Hamsun, Hermann Hesse (1971). “Ernest Hemingway, Knut Hamsun [and] Hermann Hesse”

My real self wanders elsewhere, far away, wanders on and on invisibly and has nothing to do with my life.

Real, Self, Siddhartha

The sacred sense of beyond, of timelessness, of a world which had an eternal value and the substance of which was divine had been given back to me today by this friend of mine who taught me dancing.

Dancing, Substance, World

Hermann Hesse (2013). “Steppenwolf: A Novel”, p.154, Macmillan

The river has taught me to listen; you will learn from it, too. The river knows everything; one can learn everything from it. You have already learned from the river that it is good to strive downwards, to sink, to seek the depths.

Rivers, Depth, Taught

Hermann Hesse (2015). “Siddhartha: An Indian Tale”, p.80, Om Books International

How beautiful the world was when one looked at it, without searching... just looked, simply and innocently.

Beautiful, World

Did all this make sense?

Make Sense

Hermann Hesse (2013). “Narcissus and Goldmund: A Novel”, p.216, Macmillan

He was taught by the river. Incessantly, he learned from it. Most of all, he learned from it to listen, to pay close attention with a quiet heart, with a waiting, opened soul, without passion, without a wish, without judgement, without an opinion.

Passion, Heart, Rivers

Hermann Hesse (2017). “Siddhartha”, p.77, Youcanprint

Each man's life represents a road toward himself.

Journey, Men, Discovery

Ernest Hemingway, Knut Hamsun, Hermann Hesse (1971). “Ernest Hemingway, Knut Hamsun [and] Hermann Hesse”

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.

Beautiful, Blue, Sky

Hermann Hesse (2017). “Siddhartha”, p.31, Youcanprint

You May Also Like: