My real self wanders elsewhere, far away, wanders on and on invisibly and has nothing to do with my life.
Interpretation
This quote expresses the idea that one's true identity may be disconnected from their external life or circumstances.
Hermann Hesse's quote reflects a profound introspection about the nature of the self and identity. It suggests that while a person may appear to live a certain life on the outside, their true essence or 'real self' may be yearning for something beyond the mundane realities of everyday existence. This disconnection highlights the human experience of feeling out of place or unfulfilled in one's current situation, resonating with the desire for deeper meaning and connection.
In practice
Using this quote in a philosophical discussion about the nature of identity.
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.
What makes loneliness an anguish is not that I have no one to share my burden, but this: I have only my own burden to bear.
The choice before human beings, is not, as a rule, between good and evil but between two evils.
We talk about heaven being so far away. It is within speaking distance to those who belong there. Heaven is a prepared place for a prepared people.
Progress is Providence without God. That is, it is a theory that everything has always perpetually gone right by accident. It is a sort of atheistic optimism, based on an everlasting coincidence far more miraculous than a miracle.
Clay is moulded to make a vessel, but the utility of the vessel lies in the space where there is nothing. . . . Thus, taking advantage of what is, we recognize the utility of what is not.
Women must be freed from the idea that they always have to stay young and that they must disfigure themselves at a certain age.
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