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
make-sense
Did all this make sense?
opposites truth-is
The opposite of every truth is just as true.
holy persons
a person is never entirely holy or entirely sinful.
latin book school
I shall begin my story with an experience I had when I was ten and attended our small town's Latin school.
glowing childhood littles
For me, however, that beloved, glowing little word happiness has become associated with everything I have felt since childhood upon hearing the sound of the word itself.
unity woods all-things
Yes, I am going into the woods; I am going into the unity of all things.
conceited thinking agony
The diabolical thing about melancholy is not that it makes you ill but that it makes you conceited and shortsighted; yes almost arrogant. You lapse into bad taste, thinking of yourself as Heine's Atlas, whose shoulders support all the world's puzzles and agonies, as if thousands, lost in the same maze, did not endure the same agonies.
cups filled
The cup was emptied and would never be filled again.
expression people soul
...and gradually his face assumed the expressions which are so often found among rich people - the expressions of discontent, of sickliness, of displeasure, of idleness, of lovelessness. Slowly the soul sickness of the rich crept over him.
individuality suffering flesh
In each individual the spirit is made flesh, in each one the whole of creation suffers, in each one a Savior is crucified.
arrows soul bows
Om is the bow, the arrow is soul,
time real evil
If time is not real, then the dividing line between this world and eternity, between suffering and bliss, between good and evil, is also an illusion.
brain thousand
In my brain were stored a thousand pictures.
stealing streets
Love can be begged, bought, or received as a gift, one can find it in the street, but one cannot steal it.