You knew all along that your sanctioned world was only half the world, and you tried to suppress the other half the same way the priests and teachers do. You won't succeed. No one succeeds in this once he has begun to think.
Interpretation
The quote highlights the idea that suppressing knowledge and understanding is futile, as true awareness will eventually emerge.
Hermann Hesse's quote reflects on the limitations of a sanctioned worldview that aims to ignore or suppress alternative perspectives. It suggests that once an individual begins to think critically and question the norms imposed by society, such as those by priests and teachers, they cannot unlearn or ignore the reality of a more complex and nuanced world. The struggle between accepted beliefs and personal discovery is highlighted, emphasizing the inevitability of expanding one's understanding despite attempts to suppress it.
In practice
In a discussion about education and the importance of critical thinking, this quote can emphasize the necessity of exploring beyond traditional teachings.
I shall no longer be instructed by the Yoga Veda or the Aharva Veda, or the ascetics, or any other doctrine whatsoever. I shall learn from myself, be a pupil of myself; I shall get to know myself, the mystery of Siddhartha." He looked around as if he were seeing the world for the first time.
That is where my dearest and brightest dreams have ranged — to hear for the duration of a heartbeat the universe and the totality of life in its mysterious, innate harmony.
I, also, would like to look and smile, sit and walk like that, so free, so worthy, so restrained, so candid, so childlike and mysterious. A man only looks and walks like that when he has conquered his Self. I also will conquer my Self.
You're quite right there," he said. "I have practiced abstinence myself for years, and had my time of fasting, too, but now I find myself once more beneath the sign of Aquarius, a dark and humid constellation.
I call that man awake who, with conscious knowledge and understanding, can perceive the deep unreasoning powers in his soul, his whole innermost strength, desire and weakness, and knows how to reckon with himself.
Despair is the result of each earnest attempt to go through life with virtue, justice and understanding, and to fulfill their requirements. Children live on one side of despair, the awakened on the other side.
It was too late - everything was too late. For years now he had dreamed the world away, basing his decisions upon emotions unstable as water.
The Christian religion is only for one who needs infinite help, therefore only for one who feels an infinite need. The whole planet cannot be in greater anguish than a single soul. The Christian faith - as I view it - is the refuge in this ultimate anguish. To whom it is given in this anguish to open his heart, instead of contracting it, accepts the means of salvation in his heart.
Ownership is the most intimate relationship that one can have to objects. Not that they come alive in him; it is he who lives in them.
There are two kinds of taste, the taste for emotions of surprise and the taste for emotions of recognition.
A young man who wishes to remain a sound atheist cannot be too careful of his reading.
Social progress makes the well-being of all more and more the business of each.
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