Hermann Hesse

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

If you hate a person, you hate something in him that is part of yourself. What isn't part of ourselves doesn't disturb us.

I have always believed, and I still believe, that whatever good or bad fortune may come our way we can always give it meaning and transform it into something of value.

Writing is good, thinking is better. Cleverness is good, patience is better.

Wisdom is nothing but a preparation of the soul, a capacity, a secret art of thinking, feeling and breathing thoughts of unity at every moment of life.

If time is not real, then the dividing line between this world and eternity, between suffering and bliss, between good and evil, is also an illusion.

Sentimentality is a basking in feelings that in reality you don't take seriously enough to make the slightest sacrifice to or ever translate into action.

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.

I am much inclined to live from my rucksack, and let my trousers fray as they like.

You must find your dream...but no dream lasts forever, each dream is followed by another, and one should not cling to any particular dream.