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

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

The bourgeois prefers comfort to pleasure, convenience to liberty, and a pleasant temperature to the deathly inner consuming fire.
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

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

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

If a man has nothing to eat, fasting is the most intelligent thing he can do.
Hermann Hesse

Perhaps people like us cannot love. Ordinary people can - that is their secret.
Hermann Hesse

When dealing with the insane, the best method is to pretend to be sane.
Hermann Hesse

It is possible for one never to transgress a single law and still be a bastard.
Hermann Hesse

Within us there is someone who knows everything, wills everything, does everything better than we ourselves.
Hermann Hesse

People with courage and character always seem sinister to the rest.
Hermann Hesse

Eternity is a mere moment, just long enough for a joke.
Hermann Hesse

Only the ideas that we really live have any value.
Hermann Hesse

To study history means submitting to chaos and nevertheless retaining faith in order and meaning.
Hermann Hesse

Happiness is a how; not a what. A talent, not an object.
Hermann Hesse

Without words, without writing and without books there would be no history, there could be no concept of humanity.
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

Those who cannot think or take responsibility for themselves need, and clamor for, a leader.
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

All men are prepared to accomplish the incredible if their ideals are threatened.
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