Hermann Hesse
Hermann Hesse
Hermann Karl Hessewas a German-born Swiss poet, novelist, and painter. His best-known works include Steppenwolf, Siddhartha, and The Glass Bead Game, each of which explores an individual's search for authenticity, self-knowledge and spirituality. In 1946, he received the Nobel Prize in Literature...
NationalityGerman
ProfessionPoet
Date of Birth2 July 1877
CityCalw, Germany
CountryGermany
finding indeed means perhaps seeking striving towards worthy
Seeking means to have a goal; but finding means to be free, to be receptive, to have no goal. You, O worthy one, are perhaps indeed a seeker, for in striving towards your goal, you do not see many things that are under your nose.
clear poet year
From my thirteenth year on, it was clear to me that I wanted to be a poet or nothing at all.
attracted begins ceases love merely nor power
Love must not entreat, nor demand. Love must have the power to find its own way to certainty. Then it ceases merely to be attracted and begins to attract. Your love, Sinclair, is attracted by me. When it begins to attract me, I will come. I will not
capture dream finds followed happy
One can be happy when he finds his dream, but every dream has to be followed by a new one and you can't capture any of them forever.
books later men sooner whenever
Whenever books are burned, sooner or later men also are burned.
It is possible for one never to transgress a single law and still be a bastard.
above carefully comfort cursed detested fat hated middle optimism preserved prosperous
What I always hated and detested and cursed above all things was this contentment, this healthiness and comfort, this carefully preserved optimism of the middle classes, this fat and prosperous brood of mediocrity.
considered paradise recognized seldom until
Paradise is seldom recognized as such until it is considered from the outside.
cannot filled knowledge man sustained teach utter wisdom
Knowledge can be communicated, but wisdom cannot. A man can find it, he can live it, he can be filled and sustained by it, but he cannot utter or teach it.
children educate happiness rejoices
He does not educate children but rejoices in their happiness
beyond capable dividing drawn line mind opposites pairs passing
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.
deathly empty hateful hell ideal loneliness mask occasion torn waste
And every occasion when a mask was torn off, an ideal broken, was preceded by this hateful vacancy and stillness, this deathly constriction and loneliness and unrelatedness, this waste and empty hell of lovelenessness and despair, such as I had now t
destroy fights whoever
The bird fights its way out of the egg. The egg is the world. Whoever will be born must destroy a world.
dance taken steps
So you can't dance? Not at all? Not even one step? How can you say that you've taken any trouble to live when you won't even dance?