What you call passion is not spiritual force, but friction between the soul and the outside world.
HERMANN HESSEWhat you call passion is not spiritual force, but friction between the soul and the outside world.
HERMANN HESSEAny attempt to replace a personal conscience by a collective conscience does violence to the individual and is the first step toward totalitarianism.
HERMANN HESSEA magic dwells in each beginning, protecting us, telling us how to live.
HERMANN HESSEThe true profession of a man is to find his way to himself.
HERMANN HESSEAll higher humor begins with ceasing to take oneself seriously.
HERMANN HESSENo permanence is ours, we are a wave that flows to fit whatever form it finds.
HERMANN HESSEA tree has something to say to us: Be still! Be still! Look at me!… Home is within you, or home is nowhere at all.
HERMANN HESSEEvery experience has its element of magic.
HERMANN HESSEHis 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.
HERMANN HESSEWe have to stumble through so much dirt and humbug before we reach home. And we have no one to guide us. Our only guide is our homesickness.
HERMANN HESSEBecause the world is so full of death and horror, I try again and again to console my heart and pick the flowers that grow in the midst of hell.
HERMANN HESSEKnowledge can be communicated, but not wisdom. One can find it, live it, be fortified by it, do wonders through it, but one cannot communicate and teach it.
HERMANN HESSEArt is the contemplation of the world in a state of grace.
HERMANN HESSEOpinions mean nothing; they may be beautiful or ugly, clever or foolish, anyone can embrace or reject them.
HERMANN HESSETheory is knowledge that doesn’t work. Practice is when everything works and you don’t know why.
HERMANN HESSEI have begun to listen to the teachings my blood whispers to me.
HERMANN HESSE