Quotes by Hermann Hesse

All men are prepared to accomplish the incredible if their ideals are threatened.
– Hermann Hesse
Everything becomes a little different as soon as it is spoken out loud.
– Hermann Hesse
I have always believed, and I still believe, that whatever good or bad fortune may come our way we can always give it meaning and transform it into something of value.
– Hermann Hesse
It is not our purpose to become each other; it is to recognize each other, to learn to see the other and honor him for what he is.
– Hermann Hesse
Our mind is capable of passing beyond the dividing line we have drawn for it. Beyond the pairs of opposites of which the world consists, other, new insights begin.
– Hermann Hesse
Those who cannot think or take responsibility for themselves need, and clamor for, a leader.
– Hermann Hesse
You know quite well, deep within you, that there is only a single magic, single power, a single salvation... and that is called loving. Well, then, love your suffering. Do not resist it, do not flee from it. It is your aversion that hurts, nothing else.
– Hermann Hesse
I was only trying to live my life in accordance with the principles which sprang from my own true self. Why was that so very difficult?
– Hermann Hesse
If you hate a person, you hate something in him that is part of yourself. What isn't part of ourselves doesn't disturb us.
– Hermann Hesse
People with courage and character always seem sinister to the rest.
– Hermann Hesse
Without words, without writing and without books there would be no history, there could be no concept of humanity.
– Hermann Hesse
What constitutes a real, live human being is more of a mystery than ever these days, and men each one of whom is a valuable, unique experiment on the part of nature are shot down wholesale.
– Hermann Hesse
To study history means submitting to chaos and nevertheless retaining faith in order and meaning.
– Hermann Hesse
To be able to throw one's self away for the sake of a moment, to be able to sacrifice years for a woman's smile - that is happiness.
– Hermann Hesse
There is, so I believe, in the essence of everything, something that we cannot call learning. There is, my friend, only a knowledge - that is everywhere.
– Hermann Hesse
The truth is lived, not taught.
– Hermann Hesse
The call of death is a call of love. Death can be sweet if we answer it in the affirmative, if we accept it as one of the great eternal forms of life and transformation.
– Hermann Hesse
Some of us think holding on makes us strong but sometimes it is letting go.
– Hermann Hesse
One never reaches home, but wherever friendly paths intersect the whole world looks like home for a time.
– Hermann Hesse
Knowledge can be communicated, but not wisdom. One can find it, live it, be fortified by it, do wonders through it, but one cannot communicate and teach it.
– Hermann Hesse
Happiness is a how not a what. A talent, not an object.
– Hermann Hesse
As a body everyone is single, as a soul never.
– Hermann Hesse