People know, or dimly feel, that if thinking is not kept pure and keen, and if respect for the world of mind is no longer operative, ships and automobiles will soon cease to run right, the engineer's slide rule and the computations of banks and stock exchanges will forfeit validity and authority, and chaos will ensue.
Interpretation
This quote emphasizes the importance of maintaining clarity and respect for the mind in order to ensure order in the physical world.
Hermann Hesse suggests that a decline in the purity and sharpness of our thinking, along with a lack of respect for intellectual pursuits, can lead to practical breakdowns in the world around us. He warns that if we neglect the importance of mental clarity and fail to engage thoughtfully with our environment, we risk chaos in societal structures such as engineering, finance, and technology.
In practice
In a speech on mental clarity and decision-making, one might quote Hesse to emphasize the importance of thoughtful reflection.
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.
Man is so made that he can only find relaxation from one kind of labor by taking up another.
It is useful to constantly observe, note, and consider.
To fix the thoughts by writing, and subject them to frequent examinations and reviews, is the best method of enabling the mind to detect its own sophisms, and keep it on guard against the fallacies which it practices on others
Niggas hate what they can't understand, fear what they can't conquer
We cannot control the evil tongues of others; but a good life enables us to disregard them.
We weren't allowing our hopes to become expectations. Expectations are tempting, pleasant, maybe necessary. They are scary too, once you have had some experience. They are not necessarily and not always a bucket of smoke, but they can be and are even likely to be.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.