Hermann Hesse quotes - page 9

Love is stronger than violence. (Hermann Hesse)
I can think. I can wait. I can fast. View quote
Hermann Hesse
For the air of lonely men surrounded him now, a still atmosphere in which the world around him slipped away, leaving him incapable of relationship, an atmosphere against which neither will nor longing availed. This was one of the significant earmarks of his life. View quote
Hermann Hesse
Oh, if I had had a friend at this moment, a friend in an attic room, dreaming by candlelight and with a violin lying ready at his hand! How I should have slipped up to him in his quiet hour, noiselessly climbing the winding stair to take him by surprise, and then with talk and music we should have held heavenly festival throughout the night! View quote
Hermann Hesse
Once it happened, as I lay awake at night, that I suddenly spoke in verses, in verses so beautiful and strange that I did not venture to think of writing them down, and then in the morning they vanished; and yet they lay hidden within me like the hard kernel within an old brittle husk. View quote
Hermann Hesse
That seems to be the way of things. Everyone takes, everyone gives. Life is like that. View quote
Hermann Hesse
The way to innocence, to the uncreated and to God leads on, not back, not back to the wolf or to the child, but ever further into sin, ever deeper into human life. View quote
Hermann Hesse
In fear I hurried this way and that. I had the taste of blood and chocolate in my mouth, the one as hateful as the other. View quote
Hermann Hesse
What a wonderful sleep it had been! Never had sleep so refreshed him, so renewed him, so rejuvenated him! Perhaps he had really died, perhaps he had been drowned and was reborn in another form. No, he recognized himself, he recognized his hands and feet, the place where he lay and the Self in his breast, Siddhartha, self-willed, individualistic. But this Siddhartha was somewhat changed, renewed. He had slept wonderfully. He was remarkably awake, happy and curious. View quote
Hermann Hesse
A girl had bidden me eat and drink and sleep, and had shown me friendship and had laughed at me and had called me a silly little boy. And this wonderful friend had talked to me of the saints and shown me that even when I had outdone myself in absurdity I was not alone. View quote
Hermann Hesse
All the women of this fevered night, all that I had danced with, all whom I had kindled or who have kindled me, all whom I had courted, all who had clung to me with longing, all whom I had followed with enraptured eyes were melted together and had become one, the one whom I held in my arms. (Hermann Hesse)
Alas, Siddhartha, I see you suffering, but you're suffering a pain at which one would like to laugh, at which you'll soon laugh for yourself. View quote
Hermann Hesse
Everything that was not suffered to the end and finally concluded, recurred, and the same sorrows were undergone. View quote
Hermann Hesse
You should not take old people who are already dead seriously. It does them injustice. We immortals do not like things to be taken seriously. We like joking. Seriousness, young man, is an accident of time. It consists, I don't mind telling you in confidence, in putting too high a value on time. I, too, once put too high a value on time. For that reason I wished to be a hundred years old. In eternity, however, there is no time, you see. Eternity is a mere moment, just long enough for a joke. View quote
Hermann Hesse
You learned people and artists have, no doubt, all sorts of superior things in your heads; but you're human beings like the rest of us, and we, too, have our dreams and fancies. View quote
Hermann Hesse
He saw merchants trading, princes hunting, mourners wailing for their dead, whores offering themselves, physicians trying to help the sick, priests determining the most suitable day for seeding, lovers loving, mothers nursing their children-and all of this was not worthy of one look from his eye, it all lied, it all stank, it all stank of lies, it all pretended to be meaningful and joyful and beautiful, and it all was just concealed putrefaction. The world tasted bitter. Life was torture. View quote
Hermann Hesse
And here is a doctrine at which you will laugh. It seems to me, Govinda, that love is the most important thing in the world. View quote
Hermann Hesse
All it has experienced, tasted, suffered The course of years, generations of animals, Oppression, recovery, friendship of sun and - Wind Will pour forth each day in the song Of its rustling foliage, in the friendly Gesture of its gently swaying crown, In the delicate sweet scent of resinous Sap moistening the sleep-glued buds, And the eternal game of lights and Shadows it plays with itself, content. View quote
Hermann Hesse
One day I would be a better hand at the game. One day I would learn how to laugh. Pablo was waiting for me, and Mozart too. View quote
Hermann Hesse
Knowledge can be communicated, but wisdom cannot. A man can find it, he can live it, he can be filled and sustained by it, but he cannot utter or teach it. View quote
Hermann Hesse
Beginners learned how to establish parallels, by means of the Game's symbols, between a piece of classical music and the formula for some law of nature. Experts and Masters of the Game freely wove the initial theme into unlimited combinations. (Hermann Hesse)
Property, possessions and riches had also finally trapped him. They were no longer a game and a toy. They had become a chain and a burden. View quote
Hermann Hesse
There is truth, my boy. But the doctrine you desire, absolute, perfect dogma that alone provides wisdom, does not exist. View quote
Hermann Hesse
Never is a man or a deed wholly Samsara or wholly Nirvana; never is a man wholly a saint or a sinner. View quote
Hermann Hesse
Wisdom is not communicable. The wisdom which a wise man tries to communicate always sounds foolish... Knowledge can be communicated, but not wisdom. View quote
Hermann Hesse