Like one who has eaten and drunk too much and vomits painfully and then feels better, so did the restless man wish he could rid himself with one terrific heave of these pleasures, of these habits of this entirely senseless life.
Interpretation
This quote reflects the desire to escape the burdens of a life filled with excessive pleasures and habits that feel meaningless.
Hermann Hesse uses a vivid metaphor comparing the feeling of a person who has overindulged and suffers afterward to a restless individual who longs to rid himself of the superficial pleasures and senseless habits of life. It suggests that sometimes, one may feel suffocated by life's distractions and crave a transformative release to achieve a more meaningful existence.
In practice
In a discussion about the pursuit of happiness, one might use this quote to emphasize the emptiness of excessive indulgence.
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.
The problem in the world is the oppression of man by man; it this which threatens existence.
To different minds, the same world is a hell, and a heaven.
Words are wise men's counters, they do but reckon by them: but they are the money of fools, that value them by the authority of an Aristotle, a Cicero, or a Thomas, or any other doctor whatsoever, if but a man.
The punishment which the wise suffer who refuse to take part in the government, is to live under the government of worse men.
Surely no mere mortal who has at all gone down into himself will ever pretend that his slightest thought or act solely originates in his own defined identity.
The self is like a pimping blackmailing chauffeur who gets you from here to there on word lines.
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