Demian Quote by Hermann Hesse

““But whereas we, in our conception, represented the will of nature to renew itself, to individualize and march forward, the others lived in the desire for the perpetuation of things as they are. For them humanity—which they loved as we did—was something complete that must be maintained and protected. For us humanity was a distant goal towards which we were marching, whose image no one yet know, whose laws were nowhere written down.””

Hermann Hesse

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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 a place we belong. Love is what makes a home, not the contents inside the house or the number on the door. It's the people waiting for us across the threshold, the people who will take…

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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 man consists of a multitude of souls, of numerous selves. The separation of the unity of the personality into these numerous pieces passes for madness. Science has invented the name schizomania for it. Science is in…

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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 be perfected. When desires and passions do not turn into wrongful paths, music can be perfected. Perfect music has its cause. It arises from equilibrium. Equilibrium arises from righteousness, and righteousness arises from the meaning of…

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A mere nothing suffices — and the lightning strikes.

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More Demian quotes

“You are only afraid if you are not in harmony with yourself. People are afraid because they have never owned up to themselves. A…

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“Even as a child I had had at intervals a fondness for observing strange forms in nature, not so much examining them as surrendering myself to their magic, their oblique message. Long tree-roots, coloured veins in rock, patches of oil floating on water, flaws in glass—all such things had a certain fascination for me, above all, water and fire, smoke,…

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“ "The things we see," said Pistorius gently, "are the things which are already in us. There is no reality beyond what we have inside us. That is why most people live such unreal lives; they take pictures outside themselves for the real ones and fail to express their own world. One can of course live contentedly enough in that situation.…

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People with courage and character always seem sinister to the rest. It was a scandal that a breed of fearless and sinister people ran…

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Every man's story is important, eternal and sacred. That is why every man, as long as he lives and fulfills the will of nature,…

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Once you are able to make your request in such a way that you will be quite certain of its fulfillment, then the fulfillment…

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What isn't part of ourselves doesn't disturb us.

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“But where we have given of our love and respect not from habit but of our own free will, where we have been children…

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“We who bore the mark might well be considered by the rest of the world as strange, even as insane and dangerous. We had awoken, or were awakening, and we were striving for an ever perfect state of wakefulness, whereas the ambition and quest for happiness of the others consisted of linking their opinions, ideals, and duties, their life and…

Hermann Hesse