1,099 Quotes by Hermann Hesse

Why was it, do you think, I was able to recognise you and understand you?""Why, Hermine? Tell me!""Because it's the same for me as you because I am alone exactly as you are, because I'm as little fond of life and people and myself as you are and can put up with them as little. There are always a few such people who demand the utmost of life and yet cannot come to terms with its stupidity and crudeness.

... it would be better for our country and the world in general, if at least the few people who were capable of thought stood for reason and the love of peace instead of heading wildly with blind obsession for new war.

She rose to her feet and preceded me into the garden twilight. Tall and queenly, the woman of mystery strolled among the silent trees and above her head the myriad stars glowed tenderly.

And while he compared all these things which he was seeing with his eyes to the mental pictures he had painted of them in his homesickness, it became clear to him that he was, after all, destined to be a poet, and he saw that in poets' dreams reside a beauty and enchantment that one seeks in vain in the things of the real world.

Mû par un besoin obscur, je me mis à peindre tout de suite avec des couleurs très vives. Sur ma feuille, la tête de l’oiseau était jaune d’or. En me laissant guider par ma fantaisie, je continuai mon travail et, en peu de jours, j’eus terminé.

He tried to think of death as he had done now and then, but that tired him and he dozed off. When he awoke an hour later, he felt fresh and calm as though he had slept for days.

Cependant, avec un peu de zèle et quelque effort, je pouvais lire Platon, résoudre des calculs trigonométriques ou suivre une analyse chimique. Mais j’étais incapable d’une chose seulement : tirer de mon être le but obscur et me le représenter, comme le faisaient les autres qui savaient avec certitude vouloir être professeur ou juge, médecin ou artiste, et pendant combien de temps, et quels avantages ils retireraient de ces professions.

Das verzweifelte Nichtsterbenwollen ist der sicherste Weg zum ewigen Tode, während Sterbenkönnen, Hüllenabstreifen, ewige Hingabe des Ichs an die Wandlung führt zur Unsterblichkeit.

I saw that something remained of the fools' play, the death dance of human life, something lasting: works of art. They too will probably perish some day; they'll burn or crumble or be destroyed. Still, they outlast many human lives; they form a silent empire of images and relics beyond the fleeting moment. To work at that seems good and comforting to me, because it almost succeeds in making the transitory eternal.