Hermann Hesse

“It was morning; through the high window I saw the pure, bright blue of the sky as it hovered cheerfully over the long roofs of the neighboring houses. It too seemed full of joy, as if it had...”

“Those who cannot think or take responsibility for themselves need, and clamor for, a leader.”

“Writing is good, thinking is better. Cleverness is good, patience is better.”

“This happiness consisted of nothing else but the harmony of the few things around me with my own existence, a feeling of contentment and well-being that needed no changes and no intensificat...”

“In each individual the spirit is made flesh, in each one the whole of creation suffers, in each one a Savior is crucified.”

“I was out of my bed in one second, trembling with excitement, and I dashed to the door and into the adjoining room, where I could watch the streets below from the windows.”

“When trying to remember my share in the glow of the eternal present, in the smile of God, I return to my childhood, too, for that is where the most significant discoveries turn up.”

“It was still quiet in the house, and not a sound was heard from outside, either. Were it not for this silence, my reverie would probably have been disrupted by reminders of daily duties, of...”

“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.”

“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.”

“Nevertheless, whether in occurrences lasting days, hours or mere minutes at a time, I have experienced happiness often, and have had brief encounters with it in my later years, even in old a...”

“The world is not imperfect or slowly evolving along a path to perfection. No, it is perfect at every moment, every sin already carries grace in it.”

“It is not Kafka's fault that his wonderful writings have lately turned into a fad, and are read by people who have neither the ability nor the desire to absorb literature.”

“If a man has nothing to eat, fasting is the most intelligent thing he can do.”

“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.”

“For me, however, that beloved, glowing little word happiness has become associated with everything I have felt since childhood upon hearing the sound of the word itself.”

“One never reaches home, but wherever friendly paths intersect the whole world looks like home for a time.”

“Every man is more than just himself; he also represents the unique, the very special and always significant and remarkable point at which the world's phenomena intersect, only once in this w...”

“To study history means submitting to chaos and nevertheless retaining faith in order and meaning.”

“Perhaps people like us cannot love. Ordinary people can - that is their secret.”