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Mind Quotes by Hermann Hesse

30 Mind quotes by Hermann Hesse

All Mind quotes Hermann Hesse’s page

If you ever wondered how Hesse perceived the inner workings of thought, this set offers a solid glimpse. Across thirty reflections, his prose swings between quiet contemplation and vivid imagination, giving a sense of his literary rhythm without overwhelming the reader.

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...and the vessel was not full, his intellect was not satisfied, his soul was not at peace, his heart was not still.

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Age is a state of mind. Youth and age exist only among the ordinary people. All the more talented and exceptional of…

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“Troubled, yet also with laughter, he recalled that time. He remembered that at that time he had boasted of three things to…

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“Deep was his sleep and free of dreams; it had been a long time since he had known such sleep. When he…

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The mind is international and supra-national ... it ought to serve not war and annihilation, but peace and reconciliation.

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“He had too much to think about. In the course of his long, useless marches he had sunk deeper and deeper into…

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“In the beginning his dream and his happiness, in the end it was his bitter fate...But in the midst of the freedom…

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“He tried to think of death as he had done now and then, but that tired him and he dozed off. When…

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He had thrown himself away, he had lost interest in everything, and life, falling in with his feelings, had demanded nothing of…

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“He began to suffocate slowly in the more and more rarefied atmosphere of remoteness and solitude. For now it was his wish…

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People know, or dimly feel, that if thinking is not kept pure and keen, and if respect for the world of mind…

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“With growing sorrow and fear, the poor man painfully saw how wasted and empty the life that lay behind him had become.…

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“Words do not express thoughts very well; everything immediately becomes a little different, a little distorted, a little foolish. And yet it…

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. Deeply, he felt the love for the run-away in his heart, like a wound, and he felt at the same time…

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“The source ran somewhere, far away from him, ran and ran invisibly, had nothing to do with his life any more. And…

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One of the disadwantages of school and learning, he thought dreamily, was that the mind seemed to have the tendency too see…

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“He read the veinings of a leaf, the pattern on a mushroom cap, and divined mysteries, relations, futures, possibilities: the magic of…

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“He achieved his aim. He was ever more independent. He took orders from no man and ordered his ways to suit no…

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You should not take old people who are already dead seriously. It does them injustice. We immortals do not like things to…

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“And those of us who trust ourselves the least, Who doubt and question most, these, it may be, Will make their mark…

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“But in the midst of the freedom he had achieved Harry suddenly became aware that his freedom was a death and that…

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Our mind is capable of passing beyond the dividing line we have drawn for it. Beyond the pairs of opposites of which…

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The bourgeois treasures nothing more highly than the self… And so at the cost of intensity he achieves his own preservation andsecurity.…

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“The morning was a wretched time of day for him. He feared it and it never brought him any good. On no…

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“He reflected deeply, until this feeling completely overwhelmed him and he reached a point where he recognized causes; for to recognize causes,…

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Was it not his Self, his small, fearful and proud Self, with which he had wrestled for so many years, but which…

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For the air of lonely men surrounded him now, a still atmosphere in which the world around him slipped away, leaving him…

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For a while I shall still be leaving, looking back at you as you slip away into the magic islands of the…

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Deeply, he felt the love for the run-away in his heart, like a wound, and he felt at the same time that…

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“And all this, I said, just as today was the case with the beginnings of wireless, would be of no more service…

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More by Hermann Hesse

Only within yourself exists the other reality for which you long. I can give you nothing that has not already its being within yourself.…

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Therefore, I see whatever exists as good, death is to me like life, sin like holiness, wisdom like foolishness, everything has to be as…

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A home isn't just a roof over our heads. A home is a place where we feel loved and where we love others. It's…

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Fortunately, like most children, I had learned what is most valuable, most indispensable for life before school years began, taught by apple trees, by…

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“The mistaken and unhappy notion that a man is an enduring unity is known to you. It is also known to you that a…

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“... it would be better for our country and the world in general, if at least the few people who were capable of thought…

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The bird fights its way out of the egg. The egg is the world. Who would be born must first destroy a world. The…

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Everything becomes a little different as soon as it is spoken out loud.

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It may be important to great thinkers to examine the world, to explain and despise it. But I think it is only important to…

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“..it is useless for you to build walls and dormitories and chapels and churches. Death looks through the window and laughs..”

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“When the world is at peace, when all things are tranquil and all men obey their superiors in all their courses, then music can…

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A mere nothing suffices — and the lightning strikes.

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