1,099 Quotes by Hermann Hesse

There is, after all, always something wonderful and touchingly beautiful about a young man, for the first time released from the bonds of schooling, making his first ventures toward the infinite horizon of the mind. At this point he has not yet seen any of his illusions dissipated, or doubted either his own capacity for endless dedication or the boundlessness of the world of thought.

But I no longer look to the stars, or seek in books; I have started to hear the lessons roared and murmured by the blood in my body. My story is not a happy one, not pleasing and harmonious like something invented - it reeks of meaninglessness and confusion, of insanity and dream, like the life of anyone who no longer wishes to lie to himself.

Water wants to join water. Youth wants to join youth.

I am a star in the firmamentthat observe the world, despises the worldand consumed in its heat.I am the sea by night in a stormthe sea shouting that accumulates new sinsand to the ancient makes recompense.I am exiled from your worldof pride polite, by pride defrauded,I am the king without crown.I am the passion without wordswithout stones of the hearth, without weapons in the war,is my same force that make me sick

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.

Like animals we call to each other," was the thought that came to him as he remembered the hour of love in the afternoon.

Che cosa sia un uomo realmente vivo si sa oggi meno che mai, e perciò si ammazzano gli uomini in grande quantità, mentre ognuno di essi è un esperimento unico e prezioso della natura.

One of the disadwantages of school and learning, he thought dreamily, was that the mind seemed to have the tendency too see and represent all things as though they were flat and had only two dimensions. This, somehow, seemed to render all matters of intellect shallow and worthless...

... you know that soft is stronger than hard, water stronger than rocks, love stronger than force.