1,099 Quotes by Hermann Hesse

What was the meaning of my life? Why had so many joys and sorrows passed over me? Why had I thirsted for the true and beautiful and why was my thirst still unquenched?... And why had God placed the burning need to be loved in my heart when in fact he had destined me to live the life of a recluse whom no one loved?

To deal with history [life] means to abandon one's self to chaos but to retain a belief in the ordination and the meaning. It is a very serious task.

Your soul has fallen to bits and pieces. Good. Rearrange them to suit yourself.

Auf diesem Platz hat schon mancher gedacht, hier wäre der Ort für ein tüchtiges Stück Leben und Freude, hier müßte etwas Lebendiges, Beglückendes wachsen können, hier müßten reife und gute Menschen ihre freudigen Gedanken denken und schöne und heitere Werke schaffen.

El sufrimiento, el desencanto y la melancolía existen no para irritarnos o para despojarnos de nuestra dignidad, sino para madurarnos y transfigurarnos.

Even with him, even with your great teacher, I prefer the thing over the words, place more importance on his acts and life than on his speeches, more on the gestures of his hand than his opinions. Not in his speech, not in his thoughts, I see greatness, only in his actions, in his life.

Thoughts and sorrows seem to have remained on the other side of the mountains. Between tormented men and hateful deeds, a person has to think and sorrow so much! Back there it is so difficult and so desperately important to find a reason for staying alive. How else should a person go on living? Sheer misery makes one profound.

Сè противречи едно на друго, сè протрчува едно крај друго, никаде нема сигурност. Сè може да се толкува вака, и сè може да се толкува обратно. Сета човечка историја може да се протолкува како развој и напредок, а истовремено без да се види нешто повеќе од пропаст и глупост. Зар нема вистина? Зар не постои вистинска и валидна наука?

This day will never come again and anyone who fails to eat and drink and taste and smell it will never have it offered to him again in all eternity. The sun will never shine as it does today...But you must play your part and sing a song, one of your best.