WIST

But 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. That is why every man’s story is important, eternal, sacred; that is why every man, as long as he lives and fulfills the will of nature, is wondrous, and worthy of every consideration.

Herman Hesse (1877-1962)
Demian (1919)

I wanted to try to live in accord with the promptings which came from my true self. Why is that so difficult?

Herman Hesse (1877-1962)
Demian, ch. 3 (1919) [tr. Roloff and Lebeck (1965)]

Young people have many pleasures and many sorrows, because they only have themselves to think of, so every wish and every notion assume importance; every pleasure is tasted to the full, but also every sorrow ….

Herman Hesse (1877-1962)
Gertrude (1910) [tr. H. Rosner]

Man’s life seems to me like a long, weary night that would be intolerable if there were not occasionally flashes of light, the sudden brightness of which is so comforting and wonderful, that the moments of their appearance cancel out and justify the years of darkness.

Herman Hesse (1877-1962)
Gertrude (1910) [tr. H. Rosner]

We cannot evade life’s course, but we can school ourselves to be superior to fortune and also to look unflinchingly upon the most painful things.

Herman Hesse (1877-1962)
Gertrude (1910) [tr. H. Rosner]

That’s the way it is when you love. It makes you suffer, and I have suffered much in the years since. But it matters little that you suffer, so long as you feel alive with a sense of the close bond that connects all living things, so long as love does not die!

Herman Hesse (1877-1962)
Peter Camenzind (1904)

A man who is “ill-adjusted to the world” is always on the point of finding himself. One who is adjusted to the world neer finds himself, but gets to be a cabinet minister.

Herman Hesse (1877-1962)
Reflections, #149 [ed. Michels (1974)]

No man can go too far in independence or in adaptation with impunity.

Herman Hesse (1877-1962)
Reflections, #245 [ed. Michels (1974)]

Faith and doubt go hand in hand, they are complementaries.  One who never doubts will never truly believe.

Herman Hesse (1877-1962)
Reflections, #291 (1974) [ed. V. Michels]

Soft is stronger than hard, water than rock, love than violence.

Herman Hesse (1877-1962)
Reflections, #363 [ed. Michels (1974)]

Any attempt to replace the personal conscience by a collective conscience does violence to the individual and is the first step toward totalitarianism.

Herman Hesse (1877-1962)
Reflections, ch. 32 [ed. Volker Michels (1974)]