1,099 Quotes by Hermann Hesse

Only the ideas that we actually live are of any value. You knew all along that your sanctioned world was only half the world and you tried to suppress the second half the same way the priests and teachers do. You won't succeed. No one succeeds in this once he has begun to think.

Quien no lleva dentro un lobo no tiene por eso que ser feliz tampoco.

el desesperado no querer morir, es el camino más seguro para la muerte eterna, en tanto que saber morir, rasgar el velo del arcano, ir buscando eternamente mutaciones al yo conduce a la inmortalidad.

I saw Demian's face and remarked that it was not a boy's face but a man's and then I saw, or rather became aware, that it was not really the face of a man either; it had something different about it, almost a feminine element. And for the time being his face seemed neither masculine nor childish, neither old nor young but a hundred years old, almost timeless and bearing the mark of other periods of history than our own.

He saw mankind going through life in a childlike manner... which he loved but also despised.... He saw them toiling, saw them suffering, and becoming gray for the sake of things which seemed to him to be entirely unworthy of this price, for money, for little pleasures, for being slightly honoured....

In my brain were stored a thousand pictures.

Toltosi il berretto, la salutò profondamente come una principessa e se n'andò col cuore oppresso; doveva lasciarla perire. Rimase a lungo turbato, non aveva voglia di parlare con nessuno. Per quanto poco si assomigliassero, quella fiera e povera israelita gli ricordava in certo modo Lidia, la figlia del cavaliere. Amare donne come quelle era fonte di dolore. Ma per qualche tempo gli parve di non aver mai amato altre che queste due, la povera, inquieta Lidia e l'ombrosa, amara israelita.

When I struck, I thought I was hitting a strong man capable of defending himself - but it was a quiet, suffering man, unarmed, who surrendered in silence.

Je suis très content de mon bonheur, je puis encore le subir un bon moment. Seulement, quand il me donne une heure de répit pour prendre conscience, pour redevenir nostalgique, alors toute cette nostalgie tend non pas à garder toujours ce bonheur, mais à souffrir encore, en plus grand, en plus beau qu'autrefois. Je me consume du besoin d'une souffrance qui me rende prêt et désireux de mourir.