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Any attempt to replace a personal conscience by a collective conscience does violence to the individual and is the first step toward totalitarianism.

Hermann Hesse

You are only afraid if you are not in harmony with yourself. People are afraid because they have never owned up to themselves.
HERMANN HESSE

Afraid Harmony People Yourself
Each man’s life represents a road toward himself.
HERMANN HESSE

Discovery Journey Men
There is no reality except the one contained within us.
HERMANN HESSE

Exception Philosophy Reality
Madness, in a higher sense, is the beginning of all wisdom.
HERMANN HESSE

Beginning Mad Wisdom
Every experience has its element of magic.
HERMANN HESSE

Element Experience Magic
What you call passion is not spiritual force, but friction between the soul and the outside world.
HERMANN HESSE

Force Passion Soul Spiritual World
You know quite well, deep within you, that there is only a single magic, a single power, a single salvation…and that is called loving. Well, then, love your suffering. Do not resist it, do not flee from it. It is your aversion that hurts, nothing else.
HERMANN HESSE

Encouragement Hurt Love
And all the voices, all the goals, all the yearnings, all the sorrows, all the pleasures, all the good and evil, all of them together was the world. All of them together was the stream of events, the music of life.
HERMANN HESSE

Evil Goal Goodness Life Togetherness Voice
Faith and doubt go hand in hand, they are complementaries. One who never doubts will never truly believe.
HERMANN HESSE

Believe Doubt Hands
The deity is within you, not in ideas and books. Truth is lived, not taught.
HERMANN HESSE

Book Deep Ideas Taught Truth
The bird fights its way out of the egg. The egg is the world. Who would be born must first destroy a world. The bird flies to God. The God’s name is Abraxas.
HERMANN HESSE

Born Destroy Fight God Philosophy World
My real self wanders elsewhere, far away, wanders on and on invisibly and has nothing to do with my life.
HERMANN HESSE

Life Reality
Learn what is to be taken seriously and laugh at the rest.
HERMANN HESSE

Laughter Learning Serious
All higher humor begins with ceasing to take oneself seriously.
HERMANN HESSE

Beginning Oneself Serious
Loneliness is the way by which destiny endeavors to lead man to himself.
HERMANN HESSE

Destiny Lonely Man Wise
I began to understand that suffering and disappointments and melancholy are there not to vex us or cheapen us or deprive us of our dignity but to mature and transfigure us.
HERMANN HESSE

Dignity Disappointment Suffering Understand

Any attempt to replace a personal conscience by a collective conscience does violence to the individual and is the first step toward totalitarianism.

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Any attempt to replace a personal conscience by a collective conscience does violence to the individual and is the first step toward totalitarianism.

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Popular Authors

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