Explore Quotes by Hermann Hesse

There is, so I believe, in the essence of everything, something that we cannot call learning. There is, my friend, only a knowledge - that is everywhere.

Meaning and reality were not hidden somewhere behind things, they were in them, in all of them.

To study history means submitting to chaos and nevertheless retaining faith in order and meaning.

Solitude is independence.

In each individual the spirit is made flesh, in each one the whole of creation suffers, in each one a Savior is crucified.

Eternity is a mere moment, just long enough for a joke.

Perhaps people like us cannot love. Ordinary people can - that is their secret.

The bourgeois prefers comfort to pleasure, convenience to liberty, and a pleasant temperature to the deathly inner consuming fire.

What could I say to you that would be of value, except that perhaps you seek too much, that as a result of your seeking you cannot find.

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

You are only afraid if you are not in harmony with yourself. People are afraid because they have never owned up to themselves.

Our mind is capable of passing beyond the dividing line we have drawn for it. Beyond the pairs of opposites of which the world consists, other, new insights begin.

Everything becomes a little different as soon as it is spoken out loud.

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.

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

People with courage and character always seem sinister to the rest.

When dealing with the insane, the best method is to pretend to be sane.

Knowledge can be communicated, but not wisdom. One can find it, live it, be fortified by it, do wonders through it, but one cannot communicate and teach it.

Words do not express thoughts very well. They always become a little different immediately after they are expressed, a little distorted, a little foolish.

One never reaches home, but wherever friendly paths intersect the whole world looks like home for a time.

Some of us think holding on makes us strong; but sometimes it is letting go.