Hermann Hesse Quotes

It was still quiet in the house, and not a sound was heard from outside, either. Were it not for this silence, my reverie would probably have been disrupted by reminders of daily duties, of getting up and going to school.

To be able to throw one’s self away for the sake of a moment, to be able to sacrifice years for a woman’s smile – that is happiness.

When trying to remember my share in the glow of the eternal present, in the smile of God, I return to my childhood, too, for that is where the most significant discoveries turn up.

Only the ideas that we really live have any value.

Only within yourself exists that other reality for which you long.

It is not our purpose to become each other; it is to recognize each other, to learn to see the other and honor him for what he is.

Words do not express thoughts very well. They always become a little different immediately after they are expressed, a little distorted, a little foolish.

. . . gentleness is stronger than severity, water is stronger than rock, love is stronger than force.

Every experience has its element of magic.

The truth is lived, not taught.

What could I say to you that would be of value, except that perhaps you seek too much, that as a result of your seeking you cannot find.

There is, so I believe, in the essence of everything, something that we cannot call learning. There is, my friend, only a knowledge – that is everywhere.

The marvel of the Bhagavad-Gita is its truly beautiful revelation of life’s wisdom which enables philosophy to blossom into religion.

Until 1914 I loved to travel; I often went to Italy and once spent a few months in India. Since then I have almost entirely abandoned travelling, and I have not been outside of Switzerland for over ten years.

It is possible for one never to transgress a single law and still be a bastard.

Our mind is capable of passing beyond the dividing line we have drawn for it. Beyond the pairs of opposites of which the world consists, other, new insights begin.

Eternity is a mere moment, just long enough for a joke.