1,099 Quotes by Hermann Hesse

Let every reader do as his conscience bids him.

Oh, love isn’t there to make us happy. I believe it exists to show us how much we can endure.

Within you there is a stillness and sanctuary to which you can retreat at any time and be yourself.

Notre frere a ete conduit par son epreuve au desespoir, et les desespoir est la resultat de toute tentative serieuse pour comprendre et justifier la vie humaine. le desespoir est le resultat de tout effort serieux pour mettre sa vie en harmonie avec la vertu, avec la justice, avec la raison, tout en repondant a ses exigences. les enfants vivent en deca de ce desespoir, les adultes au-dela.

His life oscillates, as everyone’s does, not merely between two poles, such as the body and the spirit, the saint and the sinner, but between thousands and thousands.

Seriousness is an accident of time. It consists of putting too high a value on time. In eternity there is no time. Eternity is a moment, just long enough for a joke.

A house without books is a poor house, even if beautiful rugs are covering its floors and precious wallpapers and pictures cover its walls.

A wild longing for strong emotions and sensations seethes in me, a rage against this toneless, flat, normal and sterile life.

Knulp was right in doing what his nature demanded and what few others could do, in speaking to strangers like a child and winning their hearts, in saying pleasant things to ladies of all ages, and making Sundays out of weekdays.