So you can't dance? Not at all? Not even one step? How can you say that you've taken any trouble to live when you won't even dance?
Interpretation
Dancing symbolizes joy and expression in life, suggesting that living fully involves embracing experiences.
In this quote, Hermann Hesse emphasizes the importance of engaging in life's moments and not shying away from personal expression, such as dancing. He suggests that rejecting joyful activities indicates a lack of appreciation for life itself and encourages individuals to embrace experiences that bring happiness and fulfillment.
In practice
During a motivational speech about embracing life's experiences.
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 β 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.
A sip of wine, a cigarette, And then itβs time to go. I tidied up the kitchenette; I tuned the old banjo. Iβm wanted at the traffic-jam. Theyβre saving me a seat.
The act of living had been enjoyable; at some point when I was not paying attention, it had turned into a different sort of experience, to whose grimness I had grown so accustomed that I now took it for granted.
The years between fifty and seventy are the hardest. You are always being asked to do things, and yet you are not decrepit enough to turn them down.
Life is so uncertain: you never know what could happen. One way to deal with that is to keep your pajamas washed.
Remember: Life is short, break the rules (they were made to be broken) Forgive quickly, kiss slowly Love truly, laugh uncontrollably And never regret anything that makes you smile. The clouds are lined with silver and the glass is half full (though the answers won't be found at the bottom) Don't sweat the small stuff, You are who you are meant to be, Dance as if no one's watching, Love as if it's all you know, Dream as if you'll live forever, Live as if you'll die today
I'm lucky. Usually you're dead to get your own museum, but I'm still alive to see mine.
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