|
cd45aef
|
Life is always frightful. We cannot help it and we are responsible all the same. One's born and at once one is guilty. You must have had a remarkable sort of religious education if you did not know that.
|
|
|
Hermann Hesse |
|
40b45bb
|
To such men the desperate and horrible thought has come that perhaps the whole of human life is but a bad joke, a violent and ill-fated abortion of the primal mother, a savage and dismal catastrophe of nature. To them, too, however, the other thought has come that man is perhaps not merely a half-rational animal but a child of the gods and destined to immortality.
|
|
|
Hermann Hesse |
|
f3ad59c
|
lys l`lm nqSan , wl ytTwr tTwr bTyy'an fy Tryq Twyl l~ lkml ; kl , nh kml fy kl lHZ@ wkl khTyy'@ tnTwy fy dkhlh `l~ lGfrn , wl'Tfl lSGr jmy`an shywkh kbr blmkn . wlrD` jmy`an yHmlwn lmwt kmn fyhm - wl'mwt kf@ mw`wdwn blHy@ l'bdy@ . wlys mn lmmkn lshkhS wHd 'n yr~ l~ 'y md~ blG shkhS akhr mn 'shwT lTryq , n bwdh mwjwd fy llS mthlm hw mwjwd fy lmqmr , wllS mwjwd fy lbrhmy . wmn lmmkn 'thn lt'ml l`myq nfy lzmn , wrwy@ lmDy wlHDr wlmstqbl jmy`a..
|
|
|
Hermann Hesse |
|
9ba8adf
|
I would lie for hours by the window gazing down upon the black lake and up at the mountains silhouetted against the wan sky, with stars suspended above. Then a fearfully sweet, overpowering emotion would take hold of me--as though all the nighttime beauty looked at me accusingly, stars and mountain and lake longing for someone who understood the beauty and agony of their mute existence, who could express it for them, as though I were the on..
|
|
|
Hermann Hesse |
|
d2929a9
|
Some day you will think of what I am going to say to you now: our friendship has no other purpose, no other reason, than to show you how utterly unlike me you are.
|
|
|
Hermann Hesse |
|
ccac067
|
All children, as long as they still live in the mystery, are continuously occupied in their souls with the only thing that is important, which is themselves and their enigmatic relationship with the world around them. Seekers and wise people return to these preoccupations as they mature. Most people, however, forget and leave forever this inner world of the truly significant very early in their lives. Like lost souls they wander about for t..
|
|
|
Hermann Hesse |
|
aca595e
|
lwld@ S`b@ dy'man. 'nt t`rf 'n lfrkh l ykhrj mn lbyD@ bshwl@? tdhkr ws'l nfsk: 'kn lTryq S`ban? 'lm ykn jmylan 'yDan? whl tstTy` 'n tfkr fy Tryq 'jml w'shl?
|
|
|
Hermann Hesse |
|
cbb1398
|
Muoth was right. On growing old, one becomes more contented than in one's youth, which I will not therefore revile, for in all my dreams I hear my youth like a wonderful song which now sounds more harmonious than it did in reality, and even sweeter
|
|
youth
|
Hermann Hesse |
|
f65d388
|
Ah, es dificil encontrar esa huella de Dios en medio de esta vida que llevamos, en medio de este siglo tan contentadizo, tan burgues, tan falto de espiritualidad, a la vista de estas arquitecturas, de esta politica, de estos hombres! ?Como no habia yo de ser un lobo estepario y un pobre anacoreta en medio de un mundo, ninguno de cuyos fines comparto, ninguno de cuyos placeres me llama la atencion? No puedo aguantar mucho tiempo ni en un tea..
|
|
|
Hermann Hesse |
|
4a57b9a
|
It is wrong to say that schoolmasters lack heart and are dried-up, soulless pedants! No, by no means. When a child's talent which he has sought to kindle suddenly bursts forth, when the boy puts aside his wooden sword, slingshot, bow-and-arrow and other childish games, when he begins to forge ahead, when the seriousness of the work begins to transform the rough-neck into a delicate, serious and an almost ascetic creature, when his face take..
|
|
hermann-hesse
tame
society
church
human-nature
school
|
Hermann Hesse |
|
dd5009a
|
He had thrown himself away, he had lost interest in everything, and life, falling in with his feelings, had demanded nothing of him. He had lived as an outsider, an idler and onlooker, well liked in his young manhood, alone in his illness and advancing years. Seized with weariness, he sat down on the wall, and the river murmured darkly in his thoughts.
|
|
pain
death
life
introspection
|
Hermann Hesse |
|
b1b737b
|
For our goal was not only the East, or rather the East was not only a country and something geographical, but it was the home and youth of the soul, it was everywhere and nowhere, it was the union of all times.
|
|
|
Hermann Hesse |
|
2334ced
|
When someone is searching," said Siddhartha, "then it might easily happen that the only thing his eyes still see is that what he searches for, that he is unable to find anything, to let anything enter his mind, because he always thinks of nothing but the object of his search, because he has a goal, because he is obsessed by the goal. Searching means: having a goal. But finding means: being free, being open, having no goal. You, oh venerable..
|
|
|
Hermann Hesse |
|
202c804
|
The world, my friend Govinda, is not imperfect, or on a slow path towards perfection: no, it is perfect in every moment, all sin already carries the divine forgiveness in itself, all small children already have the old person in themselves, all infants already have death, all dying people the eternal life. It is not possible for any person to see how far another one has already progressed on his path; in the robber and dice-gambler, the Bud..
|
|
|
Hermann Hesse |
|
b4bb976
|
Well," he said with equanimity, "you see, in my opinion there is no point at all in talking about music. I never talk about music. What reply, then, was I to make to your very able and just remarks? You were perfectly right in all you said. But, you see, I am a musician, not a professor, and I don't believe that, as regards music, there is the least point in being right. Music does not depend on being right, on having good taste and educati..
|
|
|
Hermann Hesse |
|
b2326cc
|
We can understand one another; but each one is able to explain only himself.
|
|
|
Hermann Hesse |
|
c008c5d
|
There is much that I could say about the happy and tender incidents in my childhood days, the sense of security which I enjoyed with my parents, my childish affections and carefree, irresponsible existence in a gentle and affectionate ambience. But my interest is reserved for the steps that I took in my life towards self-realization. All the pleasant points of repose, islands of happiness, paradises whose magic was not unknown to me can rem..
|
|
|
Hermann Hesse |
|
c214a44
|
Most people, Kamala, are like a falling leaf, which is blown and is turning around through the air, and wavers, and tumbles to the ground. But others, a few, are like stars, they go on a fixed course, no wind reaches them, in themselves they have their law and their course
|
|
|
Hermann Hesse |
|
d093a47
|
nm hw shy' mw'sf 'lym 'n ymwt nsn fy mthl hdh ly's .n llh l yrsl lyn ly's lyqtln,bl yrslh lyn lywqZ fyn Hy@ jdyd@
|
|
|
Hermann Hesse |
|
8e93b7c
|
During that very first conversation, about the araucaria, he called himself the Steppenwolf, and this too estranged and disturbed me a little. What an expression! However, custom did not only reconcile me to it, but soon I never thought of him by any other name; nor could I today hit on a better description of him. A wolf of the Steppes that had lost its way and strayed into the towns and the life of the herd, a more striking image could no..
|
|
|
Hermann Hesse |
|
29d0064
|
it is useless for you to build walls and dormitories and chapels and churches. Death looks through the window and laughs..
|
|
|
Hermann Hesse |
|
c2c626b
|
Times of terror and the deepest misery may arrive, but if there is to be any happiness in this misery it can only be a spiritual happiness, related to the past in the rescue of the culture of early ages and to the future in a serene and indefatigable championship of the spirit in a time which would otherwise completely swallow up the material.
|
|
present
history
past
happiness
|
Hermann Hesse |
|
4c2498e
|
even the unhappiest life has its sunny moments and its little flowers of happiness between sand and stone.
|
|
|
Hermann Hesse |
|
56ce484
|
I do not wish to offend you, believe me. I have told you my decision. Nothing can change it. I must leave, I must travel, I must be free. Let me thank you cordially once again, and let us bid each other a friendly farewell.
|
|
|
Hermann Hesse |
|
aa819ed
|
Wisdom is not communicable. The wisdom which a wise man tries to communicate always sounds foolish... Knowledge can be communicated, but not wisdom. One can find it, live it, do wonders through it, but one cannot communicate and teach it.
|
|
|
Hermann Hesse |
|
c9c9a5a
|
When someone who badly needs something finds it, it isn't an accident that brings it his way, but he himself, his own desire and necessity lead him to it.
|
|
|
Hermann Hesse |
|
185d976
|
People know, or dimly feel, that if thinking is not kept pure and keen, and if respect for the world of mind is no longer operative, ships and automobiles will soon cease to run right, the engineer's slide rule and the computations of banks and stock exchanges will forfeit validity and authority, and chaos will ensue.
|
|
|
Hermann Hesse |
|
a783d9e
|
What is meditation? What is leaving one's body? What is fasting? What is holding one's breath? It is fleeing from the self, it is a short escape of the agony of being a self, it is a short numbing of the senses against the pain and the pointlessness of life. The same escape, the same short numbing is what the driver of an ox-cart finds in the inn, drinking a few bowls of rice-wine or fermented coconut-milk. Then he won't feel his self any m..
|
|
siddhartha
hesse
|
Hermann Hesse |
|
cca3d2c
|
Siddhartha gave his garments to a poor Brahman in the street. He wore nothing more than the loincloth and the earth-coloured, unsown cloak. He ate only once a day, and never something cooked. He fasted for fifteen days. He fasted for twenty-eight days. The flesh waned from his thighs and cheeks. Feverish dreams flickered from his enlarged eyes, long nails grew slowly on his parched fingers and a dry, shaggy beard grew on his chin. His glanc..
|
|
|
Hermann Hesse |
|
1223447
|
to listen with a still heart, with a waiting, open soul, without passion, without desire, without judgement, without opinions.
|
|
|
Hermann Hesse |
|
ce57407
|
If man has nothing to eat, fasting is the most intelligent thing he can do. If, for instance, Siddhartha had not learned to fast, he would have had to seek some kind of work today, either with you, or elsewhere, for hunger would have driven him. But as it is, Siddhartha can wait calmly. He is not impatient, he is not in need, he can ward off hunger for a long time and laugh at it. Therefore, fasting is useful, sir.
|
|
|
Hermann Hesse |
|
cba438b
|
The drunkard does indeed find escape, he does indeed find short respite and rest, but he returns from the illusion and finds everything as it was before. He has not grown wiser, he has not gained knowledge, he has not climbed any higher.
|
|
|
Hermann Hesse |
|
273ff22
|
dh krht shkhSan fnk tkrh shyy'an fyh hw jz mnk 'nt, w m lys jzan mn l yz`jn
|
|
|
Hermann Hesse |
|
198b1bd
|
Everything becomes questionable as soon as I consider it closely, everything slips away and dissolves.
|
|
|
Hermann Hesse |
|
c56ac5a
|
The opposite of every truth is just as true! That's like this: any truth can only be expressed and put into words when it is one-sided. Everything is one-sided which can be thought with thoughts and said with words, it's all one-sided, all just one half, all lacks completeness, roundness, oneness. When the exalted Gotama spoke in his teachings of the world, he had to divide it into Sansara and Nirvana, into deception and truth, into sufferi..
|
|
|
Hermann Hesse |
|
644bb9b
|
But out of all secrets of the river, he today only saw one, this one touched his soul. He saw: this water ran and ran, incessantly it ran, and was nevertheless always there, was always at all times the same and yet new in every moment! Great be he who would grasp this, understand this! He understood and grasped it not, only felt some idea of it stirring, a distant memory, divine voices.
|
|
|
Hermann Hesse |
|
e7d3e74
|
There's something to walking with autumnal thoughts through the evening fog. One likes to compose poems at a time like that.
|
|
poetry
demian
|
Hermann Hesse |
|
3bf365c
|
He had too much to think about. In the course of his long, useless marches he had sunk deeper and deeper into the tangle of his botched life as into a clump of brambles, and still he had found no meaning or consolation.
|
|
life
introspection
|
Hermann Hesse |
|
da2b115
|
And occasionally I became very sad over that happiness, because I was well aware it couldn't last. I wasn't meant to exist in the lap of plenty and ease; I needed torment and persecution. I felt that some day I would awaken from those beautiful images of love and once be alone, in the cold world of the others, where there was only solitude or struggle for me, not peace or participation.
|
|
|
Hermann Hesse |
|
04298fc
|
Your life will not be flat and dull even though you know that your war will never be victorious. It is far flatter, Harry, to fight for something good and ideal and to know all the time that you are bound to attain it. Are ideals attainable? Do we live to abolish death? No--we live to fear it and then again to love it, and just for death's sake it is that our spark of life glows for an hour now and then so brightly.
|
|
steppenwolf
|
Hermann Hesse |
|
1dfeffa
|
Novalis and Dostoyevsky, awaited me just as do the mother, or the wife, the children, maids, dogs and cats in the case of more sensible people.
|
|
|
Hermann Hesse |
|
6cf1187
|
Ich wollte ja nichts als das zu leben versuchen, was von selber aus mir heraus wollte. Warum war das so sehr schwer?
|
|
|
Hermann Hesse |
|
c0757a3
|
My life, I resolved, ought to be a perpetual transcending, a progression from stage to stage; I wanted it to pass through one area after the next, leaving each behind, as music moves on from theme to theme, from tempo to tempo, playing each out to the end, completing each and leaving it behind, never tiring, never sleeping, forever wakeful, forever in the present. In connection with the experiences of awakening, I had noticed that such stag..
|
|
|
Hermann Hesse |
|
c63606f
|
With her, too, I danced more easily now, in a freer and more sprightly fashion, even though not so buoyantly and more self-consciously than with the other. Hermine had me lead, adapting herself as softly and lightly as the leaf of a flower, and with her, too, I now experienced all these delights that now advanced and now took wing. She, too, now exhaled the perfume of woman and love, and her dancing, too, sang with intimate tenderness the l..
|
|
|
Hermann Hesse |