There's no reality except the one contained within us. That's why so many people live an unreal life. They take images outside them for reality and never allow the world within them to assert itself.

- Hermann Hesse

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

- Hermann Hesse

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

- Hermann Hesse

Meaning and reality were not hidden somewhere behind things, they were in them, in all of them.

- 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 bird fights its way out of the egg. The egg is the world. Whoever will be born must destroy a world.

- Hermann Hesse

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

- Hermann Hesse

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

- Hermann Hesse

It is not our purpose to become each other; it is to recognize each other, to learn to see the other and honor him for what he is.

- Hermann Hesse

Our mind is capable of passing beyond the dividing line we have drawn for it. Beyond the pairs of opposites of which the world consists, other, new insights begin.

- Hermann Hesse

As a body everyone is single, as a soul never.

- Hermann Hesse

Some of us think holding on makes us strong; but sometimes it is letting go.

- Hermann Hesse

Words do not express thoughts very well. They always become a little different immediately after they are expressed, a little distorted, a little foolish.

- Hermann Hesse

One never reaches home, but wherever friendly paths intersect the whole world looks like home for a time.

- 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

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

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

- Hermann Hesse

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

- Hermann Hesse

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

- Hermann Hesse

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