Hermann Hesse was born on 2 July 1877 in the city of Calw, Germany. His grandfather Hermann Gundert was a man of letters and fluent in various languages. He introduced the young Hermann Hesse to the world of literature and books.
Hesse went on to become one of the most celebrated authors in the world with his work Demian, Steppenwolf, Siddharta and Peter Camenzind among many others.
However, it was only after his death in 1962 that he got so much attention and fame. In a materialistic period where the counter culture movement was growing and people were on the quest for life, love and spirituality, Hesse’s works were the inspiration for many in the United States. From there onwards, his reputation grew worldwide.
In 1946, Hermann Hesse won the Nobel Prize for his body of works which deal with various themes such as spirituality, the pleasure of living, the quest for identity and the selfishness in pursuing joy and happiness up to the point that we started living in a dull and loveless way. He believed that the old unfashionable way of living where one enjoys moderate enjoyment is the way to achieve double achievement, and that no one should overlook the little joys that come along the way throughout one’s life.
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[table “82” could not be loaded /]Hermann Hesse’s novels are the mirror which allows us to examine our own identity in a world which has become more materialistic and in which we tend to look for temporary pleasures via social media. Rather than living our lives, we gazed at others and tend to imitate up to the point of mimicry.
Our collection of Hermann Hesse’s quotes will give you a taste of the author who marked his generation by showing how important finding self-realization and fulfillment are important if we want to live life to the fullest.
Every man is more than just himself; he also represents the unique, the very special and always significant and remarkable point at which the world’s phenomena intersect, only once in this way, and never again.
Hermann Hesse
I have always believed, and I still believe, that whatever good or bad fortune may come our way we can always give it meaning and transform it into something of value.
Hermann Hesse
Everything becomes a little different as soon as it is spoken out loud.
Hermann Hesse
One never reaches home, but wherever friendly paths intersect the whole world looks like home for a time.
Hermann Hesse
Eternity is a mere moment, just long enough for a joke.
Hermann Hesse
As a body everyone is single, as a soul never.
Hermann Hesse
All men are prepared to accomplish the incredible if their ideals are threatened.
Hermann Hesse
Happiness is a how; not a what. A talent, not an object.
Hermann Hesse
The truth is lived, not taught.
Hermann Hesse
Perhaps people like us cannot love. Ordinary people can – that is their secret.
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
Words do not express thoughts very well. They always become a little different immediately after they are expressed, a little distorted, a little foolish.
Hermann Hesse
Without words, without writing and without books there would be no history, there could be no concept of humanity.
Hermann Hesse
Within us there is someone who knows everything, wills everything, does everything better than we ourselves.
Hermann Hesse
When dealing with the insane, the best method is to pretend to be sane.
Hermann Hesse
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.
Hermann Hesse
What constitutes a real, live human being is more of a mystery than ever these days, and men each one of whom is a valuable, unique experiment on the part of nature are shot down wholesale.
Hermann Hesse
To study history means submitting to chaos and nevertheless retaining faith in order and meaning.
Hermann Hesse
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.
Hermann Hesse
Those who cannot think or take responsibility for themselves need, and clamor for, a leader.
Hermann Hesse
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.
Hermann Hesse
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.
Hermann Hesse
People with courage and character always seem sinister to the rest.
Hermann Hesse
The call of death is a call of love. Death can be sweet if we answer it in the affirmative, if we accept it as one of the great eternal forms of life and transformation.
Hermann Hesse
The bourgeois prefers comfort to pleasure, convenience to liberty, and a pleasant temperature to the deathly inner consuming fire.
Hermann Hesse
Some of us think holding on makes us strong; but sometimes it is letting go.
Hermann Hesse
Solitude is independence.
Hermann Hesse
If a man has nothing to eat, fasting is the most intelligent thing he can do.
Hermann Hesse
If you hate a person, you hate something in him that is part of yourself. What isn’t part of ourselves doesn’t disturb us.
Hermann Hesse
In each individual the spirit is made flesh, in each one the whole of creation suffers, in each one a Savior is crucified.
Hermann Hesse
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.
Hermann Hesse
It is possible for one never to transgress a single law and still be a bastard.
Hermann Hesse
Knowledge 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 Hesse
Meaning and reality were not hidden somewhere behind things, they were in them, in all of them.
Hermann Hesse
Only the ideas that we really live have any value.
Hermann Hesse
There’s no reality except the one contained within us. That’s why so many people live an unreal life. They take images outside them for reality and never allow the world within them to assert itself.
Hermann Hesse
