Great Throughts Treasury

This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.

Herman Hesse

German-Swiss Poet, Novelist and Painter, Nobel Prize in Literature

"We must not give in to the desires that do not believe in them. I know what I want, but you will either be able to give up these desires or that you find yourself completely justified when incurred. And when you can formulate your request so that you are confident to achieve the probe will happen, well you do at the present time swing between the desire and rejection, and so you live in constant fear."

"We recognized only one thing as our duty and destiny: every one of us had to become himself, had to be true to and live for the sake of the seed of nature at work in himself, so completely that the uncertain future would find us ready for anything and everything it might bring."

"We talk too much, he said with unusual seriousness. The clever speeches had no value, no. It comes only from himself away. Get away from itself is sin. One must be able to fully crawl into himself like a turtle."

"We passed for jolly, unruly, even dangerous rioters, which was untrue of me, and we enjoyed a doubtful but heroic reputation."

"We were glad to have in our midst a sprinkling of fools, who, although only comparatively foolish, provided a touch of color and some occasion for laughter and mockery."

"We who bore the mark, felt no anxiety about the shape the future was to take. All of these faiths and teachings seemed to us already dead and useless. The only duty and destiny we acknowledged was that each one of us should become so completely himself, so utterly faithful to the active seed which nature planted within him, that in living out its growth he could be surprised by nothing unknown to come."

"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 happiness, ever more closely with those of the herd. They, too, strove; they too showed signs of strength and greatness. But as we saw it, whereas we marked men represented Nature's determination to create something new, individual, and forward-looking, the others lived in the determination to stay the same. For them mankind--which they loved as much as we did--was a fully formed entity that had to be preserved and protected. For us mankind was a distant future toward which we were all journeying, whose aspect no one knew, whose laws weren't written down anywhere."

"Well, I had often pondered all this, not without an intense longing sometimes to turn to and do something real for once, to be seriously and responsibly active instead of occupying myself forever with nothing but esthetics and intellectual and artistic pursuits. It always ended, however, in resignation, in surrender to destiny."

"We, marked with strange reason seemed even crazy and dangerous. We had woken up, or we were waking up and our effort was directed to a greater awareness; while the search effort and others would subordinate increasingly harder, opinions, ideals and duties, his life and happiness, to the flock. Also among those he had determination, and strength and greatness. But while we marked, we believed to represent the will of nature into the new, individually and future, others lived in a desire for permanence."

"Were not the gods forms created like me and you, mortal, transient?"

"We're really pleased with the first youth aged gentleman. Your Excellency, we find you more official, more self-righteous, self-worth more than one that, far from sincerity. The latter comes at the beginning of all, namely from the sincerity."

"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 education and all that. Indeed. Then what does it depend on? On making music, Herr Haller, on making music as well and as much as possible and with all the intensity of which one is capable. That is the point, Monsieur. Though I carried the complete works of Bach and Haydn in my head and could say the cleverest things about them, not a soul would be the better for it. But when I take hold of my mouthpiece and play a lively shimmy, whether the shimmy be good or bad, it will give people pleasure. It gets into their legs and into their blood. That's the point and that alone. Look at the faces in a dance hall at the moment when the music strikes up after a longish pause, how eyes sparkle, legs twitch and faces begin to laugh. That is why one makes music."

"What for me is bliss and life and ecstasy and exaltation, the world in general seeks at most in imagination; in life it finds it absurd."

"What are reason and sobriety without the knowledge of intoxication?"

"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."

"What a wonderful sleep it had been! Never had sleep so refreshed him, so renewed him, so rejuvenated him! Perhaps he had really died, perhaps he had been drowned and was reborn in another form. No, he recognized himself, he recognized his hands and feet, the place where he lay and the Self in his breast, Siddhartha, self-willed, individualistic. But this Siddhartha was somewhat changed, renewed. He had slept wonderfully. He was remarkably awake, happy and curious."

"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."

"What impressed walk in the fog of life and unity, there is no man knows the other every single human being."

"What is it that you want to learn from? And he thought: It was the self, the character and the nature of which I wished to learn. I would like to be able to do it myself, but I would not be able to do it. Truly, nothing in this world has occupied my thoughts as much as the self, this riddle, that I live, that I am at the Siddhartha; And I do not know anything about Siddhartha."

"What is meditative absorption? What is leaving the body? What is fasting? What is holding the breath? These are a flight from the ego, a brief escape from the torment of being an ego, a short-term deadening of the pain and absurdity of life. This same escape, this same momentary deadening, is achieved by the ox driver in an inn when he drinks a bowl of rice wine or fermented coconut milk. Then he no longer feels his self, then he no longer feels the pains of life?he achieves momentary numbness. Falling asleep over his bowl of rice wine, he reaches the same result Siddhartha and Govinda reach when, through long practice sessions, they escape their bodies and dwell in the external world. That is the way it is, Govinda."

"What is one man's treasure and wisdom always sounds like foolishness to another person."

"What I am in search of is not so much the gratification of a curiosity or a passion for worldly life, but something far less conditional. I do not wish to go out into the world with an insurance policy in my pocket guaranteeing my return in the event of a disappointment, like some cautious traveller who would be content with a brief glimpse of the world. On the contrary, I desire that there should be hazards, difficulties and dangers to face; I am hungry for reality, for tasks and deeds, and also for privation and suffering."

"What is the world doing? Have new gods been discovered, new laws, new freedoms? Who cares! But up here a primrose is blossoming and bearing silver fuzz on its leaves, and the light sweet wind is singing below me in the poplars, and between my eyes and heaven a dark golden bee is hovering and humming?I care about that. It is humming the song of happiness, humming the song of eternity. Its song is my history of the world."

"What this means, a living being, it is known today less than ever, and therefore destroys heaps of human beings, each of which is a valuable and unique creation of nature. If we were not more than only beings would be easy to make us disappear in the world with a rifle bullet, and then it would be pointless to tell stories. But every man is not only him; It is also the unique and special point at all important and interesting case where, once and never again, the phenomena of the world in a unique way intersect. So the story of every man, while he lives and fulfills the will of nature, is admirable and worthy of all attention."

"What is self - evident in the countryside, quiet night, which is the son of the city is something wondrous. It comes out of the city and come to the estate or to farm stands on the first evening to the window, or lying in bed, this quiet shrouded like home charm , or the port of tranquility like approaching the true and proper thing and feels an eternal thing."

"What should I possibly have to tell you, oh venerable one? Perhaps that you're searching far too much? That in all that searching, you don't find the time for finding?"

"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."

"What to Know! Obey is like eating and drinking. Who is deprived of something like this for a long time, there is no longer anything of value for him. You love listening to my word, is not it?"

"What today there is no community: it is simply flock. Men unite because they are afraid of one another, and each one takes refuge in his. Lords in his flock; the workers in his; intellectuals in other ... Why are you afraid? You have fear when you do not agree with himself. They are afraid because they have never dared to follow their own inner impulses. A community of individuals all fearful of the unknown which themselves lead. They feel that the laws that adjust their life have already died out , who live according to commandments outdated and that neither their religion nor morals are and we need. For a hundred years Europe has not done more to study and build factories! They know very well how many grams of powder are needed to kill a man; but they do not know how to pray to God, do not even know how you can spend a fun time. Blowing in any one of these student breweries! Or in any of the fun places to go to rich people! More distressing. What a show! From this it cannot be anything good, dear Sinclair. These men are crowded so fearfully are full of fear and evil, neither trusts the other. Faithful to ideals that are no longer, and stoned, angry, who tries to erect new ones are maintained. Sorry initiated and serious conflicts that may not take long to emerge."

"What you call passion is not a spiritual force, but friction between the soul and the outside world. Where passion dominates, that does not signify the presence of greater desire and ambition, but rather the misdirection of these qualities toward and isolated and false goal, with a consequent tension and sultriness in the atmosphere. Those who direct the maximum force of their desires toward the center, toward true being, toward perfection, seem quieter than the passionate souls because the flame of their fervor cannot always be seen. In argument, for example, they will not shout or wave their arms. But, I assure you, they are nevertheless, burning with subdued fires."

"What you could learn from me, you child, you have learned. Oh no, cried Goldmund, we didn?t become friends to end it now! What sort of friendship would that be, that reached its goal after a short distance and then simply stopped? Are you tired of me? Have you no more affection for me?"

"What would many happy citizens and trustworthy officials have become but unruly, stormy innovators and dreamers of useless dreams, if not for the effort of their schools?"

"When a person seeks, Siddhartha said, it can easily happen that his eye sees only the thing he is seeking; he is incapable of finding anything, of allowing anything to enter into him, because he is always thinking only of what he is looking for, because he has a goal, because he is possessed by his goal. Seeking means having a goal. Finding means being free, being open, having no goal. You, Venerable One, are perhaps indeed a seeker, for, striving to reach your goal, you overlook many things that lie close before your eyes."

"When a person is looking for, then easily happens that his eyes only see the thing you are looking for, and he cannot afford anything else to see or grasp, because all the time thinking only about the objects - it has a purpose, obsessed with your goal. Looking- is to have a goal. But finding - hence, to be free, open to the senses, to have no purpose."

"What you search is not necessarily the same as what you find. When you let go of the searching, you start finding."

"When a writer receives praise or blame, when he arouses sympathy or is ridiculed, when he is loved or rejected, it is not on the strength of his thoughts and dreams as a whole, but only of that infinitesimal part which has been able to make its way through the narrow channel of language and the equally narrow channel of the reader's understanding."

"When all the Self was conquered and dead, when all passions and desires were silent, then the last must awaken, the innermost of Being that is no longer Self ? the great secret!"

"When asked, you Have you also learned that the river secret: that time does not exist?"

"When a tree is polled, it will sprout new shoots nearer its roots. A soul that is ruined in the bud will frequently return to the springtime of its beginnings and its promise-filled childhood, as though it could discover new hopes there and retie the broken threads of life. The shoots grow rapidly and eagerly, but it is only a sham life that will never be a genuine tree."

"When I composed those verses I was preoccupied less with music than with an experience?an experience in which that beautiful musical allegory had shown its moral side, had become an awakening and a summons to a life vocation. The imperative form of the poem which specially displeases you is not the expression of a command and a will to teach but a command and warning directed towards myself. Even if you were not fully aware of this, my friend, you could have read it in the closing lines. I experienced an insight, you see, a realization and an inner vision, and wished to impress and hammer the moral of this vision into myself. That is the reason why this poem has remained in my memory. Whether the verses are good or bad they have achieved their aim, for the warning has lived on within me and has not been forgotten. It rings anew for me again to-day, and that is a wonderful little experience which your scorn cannot take away from me."

"When I have neither pleasure nor pain and have been breathing for a while the lukewarm insipid air of these so called good and tolerable days, I feel so bad in my childish soul that I smash my moldering lyre of thanksgiving in the face of the slumbering god of contentment and would rather feel tle very devil burn in me than this warmth of a well-heated room. A wild longing for strong emotions and sensations seethes in me, a rage against this toneless, flat, normal and sterile life. I have a mad impulse to smash something, a warehouse, perhaps, or a cathedral, or myself, to commit outrages, to pull off the wigs of a few revered idols, to provide a few rebellious schoolboys with the longed-for ticket to Hamburg, or to stand one or two representatives of the established order on their heads. For what I always hated and detested and cursed above all things was this contentment, this healthiness and comfort, this carefully preserved optimism of the middle classes, this fat and prosperous brood of mediocrity."

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

"When Siddhartha left the grove, where the Buddha, the perfected one, stayed behind, where Govinda stayed behind, then he felt that in this grove his past life also stayed behind and parted from him. He pondered about this sensation, which filled him completely, as he was slowly walking along. He pondered deeply, like diving into a deep water he let himself sink down to the ground of the sensation, down to the place where the causes lie, because to identify the causes, so it seemed to him, is the very essence of thinking, and by this alone sensations turn into realizations and are not lost, but become entities and start to emit like rays of light what is inside of them."

"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 one, are perhaps indeed a searcher, because, striving for your goal, there are many things you don't see, which are directly in front of your eyes."

"When someone reads a text whose meaning he wants to comprehend, he does not despise the signs and letters, calling them deceptive, contingent, and worthless husks, but rather he reads them, he studies and loves them, letter by letter. But I, the I who wished to read the book of the world and the book of my own essential being, I have, for the sake of a previously imagined meaning, held these signs and letters in contempt, calling the world of appearances deception, calling my eye and my tongue themselves contingent, and worthless appearances. No, this is over, I have awakened, I have indeed awakened, and today is the first day of my new life."

"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."

"When I think of the future, for me, I had only one aim, and I really want him hide. He was to be a sorcerer."

"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 the cosmos. Therefore one can speak about music only with a man who has perceived the meaning of the cosmos."

"When we are stricken and cannot bear our lives any longer, then a tree has something to say to us: Be still! Be still! Look at me! Life is not easy, life is not difficult. Those are childish thoughts. Let God speak within you, and your thoughts will grow silent. You are anxious because your path leads away from mother and home. But every step and every day lead you back again to the mother. Home is neither here nor there. Home is within you, or home is nowhere at all."

"When we hate a man, we hate in his image something we carry in ourselves. What is not also in ourselves, leaves us indifferent."