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Hermann Hesse Quotes


Some of us think holding on makes us strong; but sometimes it is letting go.

The bourgeois prefers comfort to pleasure, convenience to liberty, and a pleasant temperature to the deathly inner consuming fire.

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.

The truth is lived, not taught.

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.

There's no reality except the one contained within us. That's why so many people live an unreal life. They take images outside them for reality and never allow the world within them to assert itself.

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

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.

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

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.

What could I say to you that would be of value, except that perhaps you seek too much, that as a result of your seeking you cannot find.

When dealing with the insane, the best method is to pretend to be sane.

Within us there is someone who knows everything, wills everything, does everything better than we ourselves.

Without words, without writing and without books there would be no history, there could be no concept of humanity.

Words do not express thoughts very well. They always become a little different immediately after they are expressed, a little distorted, a little foolish.

You are only afraid if you are not in harmony with yourself. People are afraid because they have never owned up to themselves.