When we hate a person, what we hate in his image is something inside ourselves. Whatever isn't inside us can't excite us. Hermann Hesse More Quotes by Hermann Hesse More Quotes From Hermann Hesse Writing is good, thinking is better. Cleverness is good, patience is better. Hermann Hesse writinginspirationalchildren The reason why I do not know anything about myself, the reason why Siddhartha has remained alien and unknown to myself is due to one thing, to one single thing--I was afraid of myself, I was fleeing from myself. I was seeking Atman, I was seeking Brahman, I was determined to dismember myself and tear away its layers of husk in order to find in its unknown innermost recess the kernel at the heart of those layers, the Atman, life, the divine principle, the ultimate. But in so doing, I was losing myself. Hermann Hesse siddharthaheartorder Beautiful was this world, looking at it thus, without searching, thus simply, thus childlike. Hermann Hesse this-worldbeautifulworld What we can and should change is ourselves: our impatience, our egoism (including intellectual egoism), our sense of injury, our lack of love and forbearance. I regard every other attempt to change the world, even if it springs from the best intentions, as futile. Hermann Hesse intellectualspringworld An enlightened man had but one duty - to seek the way to himself, to reach inner certainty, to grope his way forward, no matter where it led. Hermann Hesse way-forwardmattermen Man is not by any means of fixed and enduring form (this, in spite of suspicions to the contrary on the part of their wise men, was the ideal of the ancients). He is nothing else than the narrow and perilous bridge between nature and spirit. His innermost destiny drives him on to the spirit and to God. His innermost longing draws him back to nature, the mother. Between the two forces his life hangs tremulous and irresolute. Hermann Hesse wisemothermean When someone seeks," said Siddhartha, "then it easily happens that his eyes see only the thing that he seeks, and he is able to find nothing, to take in nothing because he always thinks only about the thing he is seeking, because he has one goal, because he is obsessed with his goal. Seeking means: having a goal. But finding means: being free, being open, having no goal. Hermann Hesse eyemeanthinking Each man's life represents a road toward himself, an attempt at such a road, the intimation of a path... But each of us - experiments of the depths - strives toward his own destiny. We can understand one another; but each of us is able to interpret himself to himself alone. Hermann Hesse destinydepthmen For mountain and stream, tree and leaf, root and blossom, every form in nature is echoed in us and originates in the soul whose being is eternity and is hidden from us but none the less gives itself to us for the most part in the power of love and creation. Hermann Hesse rootstreegiving The voices of all creatures are in the voices of the river. Hermann Hesse voiceriverswater Opinions mean nothing; they may be beautiful or ugly, clever or foolish, anyone can embrace or reject them. Hermann Hesse cleverbeautifulmean I have always thirsted for knowledge, I have always been full of questions. Hermann Hesse siddharthainspirational Your soul is the whole world. Hermann Hesse siddharthasoulworld Good that you ask. You should always ask, always have doubts. Hermann Hesse asksshoulddoubt She stood a moment before my eyes, clearly and painfully, loved and deeply woven into my destiny; then fell away again in a deep oblivion, at a half regretted distance. Hermann Hesse distancedestinyeye Words can not express the joy of new life. Hermann Hesse new-lifejoybaby I believe that I am not responsible for the meaningfulness or meaninglessness of life, but that I am responsible for what I do with the life I've got. Hermann Hesse responsiblemeaning-of-lifebelieve It taught him how to listen -- how to listen with a quiet heart and a waiting soul, open soul, without passion, without desire, without judgment, without opinion. Hermann Hesse passionwaitingheart Who travels far will often see things Far removed from what was believed as Truth. Hermann Hesse perception I wanted only to live in accord with the promptings which came from my true self. Why was that so very difficult? Hermann Hesse accorddifficultself
