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Hermann Hesse; selected by Volker Michels; translated by Ralph Manheim. Reflections. New Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 1974. 1st American Edition, Hardbound, 8.5 inches tall, 197 pages. Sources. "The aging Hermann Hesse arranged to have privately printed a collection of thirty-nine brief passages culled from his writings, with which to reply to some of the innumerable letters he received. The existence of this book provided encouragement for the present expanded volume, which a first published in Germany in 1971."
144 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1971
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About the author
Hermann Hesse
2,203 books19.3k followersMany works, including
Siddhartha
(1922) and
Steppenwolf
(1927), of German-born Swiss writer Hermann Hesse concern the struggle of the individual to find wholeness and meaning in life; he won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1946.
Other best-known works of this poet, novelist, and painter include The Glass Bead Game , which, also known as Magister Ludi, explore a search of an individual for spirituality outside society.
In his time, Hesse was a popular and influential author in the German-speaking world; worldwide fame only came later. Young Germans desiring a different and more "natural" way of life at the time of great economic and technological progress in the country, received enthusiastically Peter Camenzind , first great novel of Hesse.
Throughout Germany, people named many schools. In 1964, people founded the Calwer Hermann-Hesse-Preis, awarded biennially, alternately to a German-language literary journal or to the translator of work of Hesse to a foreign language. The city of Karlsruhe, Germany, also associates a Hermann Hesse prize.
Other best-known works of this poet, novelist, and painter include The Glass Bead Game , which, also known as Magister Ludi, explore a search of an individual for spirituality outside society.
In his time, Hesse was a popular and influential author in the German-speaking world; worldwide fame only came later. Young Germans desiring a different and more "natural" way of life at the time of great economic and technological progress in the country, received enthusiastically Peter Camenzind , first great novel of Hesse.
Throughout Germany, people named many schools. In 1964, people founded the Calwer Hermann-Hesse-Preis, awarded biennially, alternately to a German-language literary journal or to the translator of work of Hesse to a foreign language. The city of Karlsruhe, Germany, also associates a Hermann Hesse prize.
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
March 21, 2016
A small book with magnificent quotes from the works of Hermann Hesse. A book that I find rather significant and intellectually rewarding.
January 9, 2024
An insightful read - I picked this up because I like Steppenwolf. The reason I rate this 3/5 is that I didn't find most of the aphorisms to be very profound unlike those found in the works of Nietzsche, for example. Below are the passages that spoke the most to me:
“The closer together people sit, the harder it is for them to get acquainted.” // Uncollected Book Reviews
“The only things that the bourgeois calls ‘real' are those that are perceived identically by all or at least by many.” // Kingsor’s Last Summer
“‘A criminal' people say, meaning a man who has done something that others have forbidden him to do.” // Kingsor’s Last Summer
“Those who cannot think or take responsibility for themselves need, and clamor for, a leader.” // Letters, second expanded edition, 1964
“There is nothing so evil, savage, and cruel in nature as the normal man.” // Unpublished Letters
“In my experience, the worst enemy and corrupter of man is the tendency — resulting from mental laziness and the desire for peace of mind — to join groups and organizations with set dogmas, be they religious or political.” // Letters, second expanded edition, 1964
“Those who wish to live long must serve. Those who wish to rule do not live long.” // The Journey to the East
“When we hate someone, it is because we hate some part of ourselves in his image. We don't get excited about anything — that is not in ourselves.” // Demian
“We can understand one another, but we can interpret only ourselves.” // Demian
“Spirit cannot fight against power, or quality against quantity.” // Unpublished Letters
“Life takes on meaning when we remove it as far as possible from the naïve striving for selfish pleasure, and put it in the service of something. If we take this service seriously, the
‘meaning' comes of itself.” // Unpublished Letters
“As a rule, fear of madness is merely fear of life, of the demands made on us by our development and our instincts. Between naive instinctual life and what we consciously want and strive to be, there is always a gulf. We cannot bridge it, but I believe we can leap over it, that we can do so continually, many hundreds of times; each time requires courage, and each time we fear to make the leap.” // Letters, second expanded edition, 1964
“Chaos demands to be recognized and experienced before letting itself be converted into a new order.” // Writings on Literature, Volume 2
“God does not send us despair in order to kill us; he sends it in order to awaken us to new life.” // The Glass Bead Game
“Don't say that any emotion is insignificant, that any emotion is unworthy! They are all good, very good, even hatred, even envy, jealousy, cruelty. We live by nothing else than our poor, beautiful, magnificent emotions, and every emotion we disregard is a star that we extinguish.” // Kingsor’s Last Summer
“Life is meaningless, cruel, stupid, and nevertheless magnificent — it does not make fun of man (for that requires intelligence), but concerns itself with man no more than with the earthworm. To suppose that man in particular is a whim and cruel game of nature is a fallacy that man himself has thought up because he takes himself too seriously. First of all, we must recognize that we men have no harder time of it than birds or ants, that actually our life is easier and more beautiful. We must take the cruelty of life and the inexorability of death into ourselves, not by moaning, but by experiencing our despair to the full. Only then, only when we have taken all the cruelty or meaninglessness of nature into ourselves, can we begin to confront this brutal meaninglessness and to force a meaning on it. That is the highest achievement man is capable of, and it is all he is capable of. Everything else is done better by animals. Most men do not suffer from meaninglessness, any more than the earthworm does. But precisely the few who do suffer and look for meaning are the meaning of mankind.” // Unpublished Letters
“I have never set much store by formal education, that is, I have always had serious doubts whether a man can be in any way changed or improved by it. Instead, I have had a certain confidence in the gently persuasive power of the beautiful, of art and literature, which, for my own part, did far more than any public or private schooling to mold me and make me curious about the world of the spirit.” // Letters, second expanded edition, 1964
“In that amusing subject they called history, our teachers taught us that the world had always been governed, guided, and changed by men who made their own law and broke with the traditional laws, and they told us that these men deserved to be admired. But this was just as much of a lie as everything else we were taught, for when one of us, with good or bad intent, summoned up the courage to protest against any regulation, or even against an absurd custom or fashion, he was neither admired nor pointed out as an example, but punished, ridiculed, and crushed under the cowardly weight of the teacher's authority.” // Dream Journeys
“When a man tries, with the gifts bestowed on him by nature, to fulfill himself, he is doing the highest thing he can do, the only thing that has any meaning.” // Narcissus and Goldmund
“We insist that life must have a meaning — but it can have no more meaning than we ourselves are able to give it. Because individuals can do this only imperfectly, the religions and philosophies have tried to supply a comforting answer to the question. These answers all amount to the same thing: love alone can give life meaning. In other words: the more capable we are of loving, and of giving ourselves, the more meaning there will be in our lives.” // Letters, second expanded edition, 1964
“Like art and poetry, the religions and myths are an attempt on the part of mankind to express in images the ineffable, which you are trying in vain to translate into shallow rationality.” // Letters, second expanded edition, 1964
“Our inner compass is deflected by every book we read; every outside mind shows us from how many other points of view the world can be considered. Then the oscillation gradually dies down, and the needle returns to its old orientation, inherent in the nature of each one of us. This is what happened to me when I stopped reading for a time. One can read so much; a book lover living in seclusion devours books and opinions as a man of the world devours people — one is sometimes amazed at how much one can stand. But then a time comes when one has to throw it all down and walk in the woods for a while, to consult with the weather, the flowers, the mists, and the winds, and find once more within oneself the unchanging standpoint from which one sees the world whole again.” // Uncollected Prose and Feuilletons
“Reasons, it seems to me, are always unclear. Causality is to be found nowhere in life, but only in thought. Men do not act on the basis of 'reasons', they merely imagine they do, and in the interests of vanity and virtue they try to convince others that this is so.” // ‘Journey to Nuremberg’ in Autobiographical Writings
“The truth has a million faces, but there is only one truth.” // In Memoriam
“The highest art has no need of explanation or applied psychology; it sets down its creations and trusts in their magic, without fear of not being understood.” // Uncollected Book Reviews
“What the world wants of a writer is not works and thoughts, but his address and personality, so as to honor him, then throw him out, to dress him in finery, then strip him bare, to enjoy him, and then spit at him.” // ‘Journey to Nuremberg’ in Autobiographical Writings
“It is impossible to keep doing the same thing without going stale and falling into a rut. That has been my experience. When I have concentrated for some time on a piece of creative writing or confined myself to book reviews, or read and thought about nothing but history, I have to make a change and correct my vision with other perspectives; I must turn for a while to philosophy or the history of music, or paint, or in any case do something else. Before giving ourselves a jolt and making a change, we usually go through a period of great listlessness and depression.” // Unpublished Letters
“All life is a becoming, not a being. Consequently, what you call 'culture' is not something finished once and for all, that we can inherit and preserve or throw away and destroy. Only so much of our culture remains alive and effective as each generation is able to gain possession of and breathe life into.” // Unpublished Letters
“Paradise does not make itself known as paradise until we have been driven out of it.” // Uncollected Book Reviews
“Happiness can be possessed only so long as it is unseen.” // In Memoriam
“Love must neither beg nor demand. Love must be strong enough to find certainty within itself. Then it ceases to be moved and becomes the mover.” // Demian
“Love alone gives life meaning. That is: the more capable we are of loving and surrendering ourselves, the more meaningful our life becomes.” // Letters, second expanded edition, 1964
“Truth is a typical ideal of the young, and love an ideal of the mature. Thinking men lose their enthusiasm for the truth when they discover that man is singularly ill-equipped for determining the objective truth, and that consequently the quest for truth cannot be the human, humane activity par excellence. But even those who never arrive at such insights undergo the same change in the course of their unconscious experience. To possess the truth, to be right, to be able to distinguish good and evil with certainty, consequently to be able and under obligation to judge, punish, condemn, and wage war — that is youthful and befits the young. When a man grows older and clings to these ideals, his capacity — none too strong to begin with — to awaken', to sense the superhuman truth inherent in us humans, withers away.” // Unpublished Letters
“The closer together people sit, the harder it is for them to get acquainted.” // Uncollected Book Reviews
“The only things that the bourgeois calls ‘real' are those that are perceived identically by all or at least by many.” // Kingsor’s Last Summer
“‘A criminal' people say, meaning a man who has done something that others have forbidden him to do.” // Kingsor’s Last Summer
“Those who cannot think or take responsibility for themselves need, and clamor for, a leader.” // Letters, second expanded edition, 1964
“There is nothing so evil, savage, and cruel in nature as the normal man.” // Unpublished Letters
“In my experience, the worst enemy and corrupter of man is the tendency — resulting from mental laziness and the desire for peace of mind — to join groups and organizations with set dogmas, be they religious or political.” // Letters, second expanded edition, 1964
“Those who wish to live long must serve. Those who wish to rule do not live long.” // The Journey to the East
“When we hate someone, it is because we hate some part of ourselves in his image. We don't get excited about anything — that is not in ourselves.” // Demian
“We can understand one another, but we can interpret only ourselves.” // Demian
“Spirit cannot fight against power, or quality against quantity.” // Unpublished Letters
“Life takes on meaning when we remove it as far as possible from the naïve striving for selfish pleasure, and put it in the service of something. If we take this service seriously, the
‘meaning' comes of itself.” // Unpublished Letters
“As a rule, fear of madness is merely fear of life, of the demands made on us by our development and our instincts. Between naive instinctual life and what we consciously want and strive to be, there is always a gulf. We cannot bridge it, but I believe we can leap over it, that we can do so continually, many hundreds of times; each time requires courage, and each time we fear to make the leap.” // Letters, second expanded edition, 1964
“Chaos demands to be recognized and experienced before letting itself be converted into a new order.” // Writings on Literature, Volume 2
“God does not send us despair in order to kill us; he sends it in order to awaken us to new life.” // The Glass Bead Game
“Don't say that any emotion is insignificant, that any emotion is unworthy! They are all good, very good, even hatred, even envy, jealousy, cruelty. We live by nothing else than our poor, beautiful, magnificent emotions, and every emotion we disregard is a star that we extinguish.” // Kingsor’s Last Summer
“Life is meaningless, cruel, stupid, and nevertheless magnificent — it does not make fun of man (for that requires intelligence), but concerns itself with man no more than with the earthworm. To suppose that man in particular is a whim and cruel game of nature is a fallacy that man himself has thought up because he takes himself too seriously. First of all, we must recognize that we men have no harder time of it than birds or ants, that actually our life is easier and more beautiful. We must take the cruelty of life and the inexorability of death into ourselves, not by moaning, but by experiencing our despair to the full. Only then, only when we have taken all the cruelty or meaninglessness of nature into ourselves, can we begin to confront this brutal meaninglessness and to force a meaning on it. That is the highest achievement man is capable of, and it is all he is capable of. Everything else is done better by animals. Most men do not suffer from meaninglessness, any more than the earthworm does. But precisely the few who do suffer and look for meaning are the meaning of mankind.” // Unpublished Letters
“I have never set much store by formal education, that is, I have always had serious doubts whether a man can be in any way changed or improved by it. Instead, I have had a certain confidence in the gently persuasive power of the beautiful, of art and literature, which, for my own part, did far more than any public or private schooling to mold me and make me curious about the world of the spirit.” // Letters, second expanded edition, 1964
“In that amusing subject they called history, our teachers taught us that the world had always been governed, guided, and changed by men who made their own law and broke with the traditional laws, and they told us that these men deserved to be admired. But this was just as much of a lie as everything else we were taught, for when one of us, with good or bad intent, summoned up the courage to protest against any regulation, or even against an absurd custom or fashion, he was neither admired nor pointed out as an example, but punished, ridiculed, and crushed under the cowardly weight of the teacher's authority.” // Dream Journeys
“When a man tries, with the gifts bestowed on him by nature, to fulfill himself, he is doing the highest thing he can do, the only thing that has any meaning.” // Narcissus and Goldmund
“We insist that life must have a meaning — but it can have no more meaning than we ourselves are able to give it. Because individuals can do this only imperfectly, the religions and philosophies have tried to supply a comforting answer to the question. These answers all amount to the same thing: love alone can give life meaning. In other words: the more capable we are of loving, and of giving ourselves, the more meaning there will be in our lives.” // Letters, second expanded edition, 1964
“Like art and poetry, the religions and myths are an attempt on the part of mankind to express in images the ineffable, which you are trying in vain to translate into shallow rationality.” // Letters, second expanded edition, 1964
“Our inner compass is deflected by every book we read; every outside mind shows us from how many other points of view the world can be considered. Then the oscillation gradually dies down, and the needle returns to its old orientation, inherent in the nature of each one of us. This is what happened to me when I stopped reading for a time. One can read so much; a book lover living in seclusion devours books and opinions as a man of the world devours people — one is sometimes amazed at how much one can stand. But then a time comes when one has to throw it all down and walk in the woods for a while, to consult with the weather, the flowers, the mists, and the winds, and find once more within oneself the unchanging standpoint from which one sees the world whole again.” // Uncollected Prose and Feuilletons
“Reasons, it seems to me, are always unclear. Causality is to be found nowhere in life, but only in thought. Men do not act on the basis of 'reasons', they merely imagine they do, and in the interests of vanity and virtue they try to convince others that this is so.” // ‘Journey to Nuremberg’ in Autobiographical Writings
“The truth has a million faces, but there is only one truth.” // In Memoriam
“The highest art has no need of explanation or applied psychology; it sets down its creations and trusts in their magic, without fear of not being understood.” // Uncollected Book Reviews
“What the world wants of a writer is not works and thoughts, but his address and personality, so as to honor him, then throw him out, to dress him in finery, then strip him bare, to enjoy him, and then spit at him.” // ‘Journey to Nuremberg’ in Autobiographical Writings
“It is impossible to keep doing the same thing without going stale and falling into a rut. That has been my experience. When I have concentrated for some time on a piece of creative writing or confined myself to book reviews, or read and thought about nothing but history, I have to make a change and correct my vision with other perspectives; I must turn for a while to philosophy or the history of music, or paint, or in any case do something else. Before giving ourselves a jolt and making a change, we usually go through a period of great listlessness and depression.” // Unpublished Letters
“All life is a becoming, not a being. Consequently, what you call 'culture' is not something finished once and for all, that we can inherit and preserve or throw away and destroy. Only so much of our culture remains alive and effective as each generation is able to gain possession of and breathe life into.” // Unpublished Letters
“Paradise does not make itself known as paradise until we have been driven out of it.” // Uncollected Book Reviews
“Happiness can be possessed only so long as it is unseen.” // In Memoriam
“Love must neither beg nor demand. Love must be strong enough to find certainty within itself. Then it ceases to be moved and becomes the mover.” // Demian
“Love alone gives life meaning. That is: the more capable we are of loving and surrendering ourselves, the more meaningful our life becomes.” // Letters, second expanded edition, 1964
“Truth is a typical ideal of the young, and love an ideal of the mature. Thinking men lose their enthusiasm for the truth when they discover that man is singularly ill-equipped for determining the objective truth, and that consequently the quest for truth cannot be the human, humane activity par excellence. But even those who never arrive at such insights undergo the same change in the course of their unconscious experience. To possess the truth, to be right, to be able to distinguish good and evil with certainty, consequently to be able and under obligation to judge, punish, condemn, and wage war — that is youthful and befits the young. When a man grows older and clings to these ideals, his capacity — none too strong to begin with — to awaken', to sense the superhuman truth inherent in us humans, withers away.” // Unpublished Letters
December 11, 2013
“Say yes to yourself, to what makes you different, to your feelings, your destiny! There is no other way. Where it leads I don’t know, only that it leads to life, to reality, to burning necessity.”
I happened to read this line yesterday about 10 minutes after I finished my last class of the semester and told my instructor that I have no idea what my school plans are now, but that I know I can't continue on in the program I'm currently in. Over the last few months this has become increasingly clear, but that doesn't mean the destination has become any clearer. I just keep following little bread crumbs- putting one foot in front of the other not having any idea where it will lead, but always stumbling upon something that shows me I'm heading in the right direction.
So needless to say, as I was sitting in the hallway of my school reading this line I got some pretty major chills. There is no other way. Where it leads, I don't know...only that it leads to LIFE. It continues on to say that if I choose to betray that path and assimilate into the "normal" I would not succeed for long and would end up being miserable. Yea...I get that. Following this unknown path as opposed to my previous "practical" and "obvious" path isn't going to be easy, but in a way it's easier than the alternative. A "difficult" life where I'm totally without any true "security" is going to be so much easier to deal with than a life that's perfectly mapped out, but I'm completely miserable every day.
All of that being said- I always feel so inspired/understood/challenged/encouraged when I finish a Hesse book. This was a wonderful collection of thoughts that touches on just about every topic you can imagine.
The only low point for me was the Art section...that just seemed painfully redundant and boring, and it seemed to drag on quite a bit longer than other sections- but the rest of the book was so wonderful that I'll still give it 5 stars.
I happened to read this line yesterday about 10 minutes after I finished my last class of the semester and told my instructor that I have no idea what my school plans are now, but that I know I can't continue on in the program I'm currently in. Over the last few months this has become increasingly clear, but that doesn't mean the destination has become any clearer. I just keep following little bread crumbs- putting one foot in front of the other not having any idea where it will lead, but always stumbling upon something that shows me I'm heading in the right direction.
So needless to say, as I was sitting in the hallway of my school reading this line I got some pretty major chills. There is no other way. Where it leads, I don't know...only that it leads to LIFE. It continues on to say that if I choose to betray that path and assimilate into the "normal" I would not succeed for long and would end up being miserable. Yea...I get that. Following this unknown path as opposed to my previous "practical" and "obvious" path isn't going to be easy, but in a way it's easier than the alternative. A "difficult" life where I'm totally without any true "security" is going to be so much easier to deal with than a life that's perfectly mapped out, but I'm completely miserable every day.
All of that being said- I always feel so inspired/understood/challenged/encouraged when I finish a Hesse book. This was a wonderful collection of thoughts that touches on just about every topic you can imagine.
The only low point for me was the Art section...that just seemed painfully redundant and boring, and it seemed to drag on quite a bit longer than other sections- but the rest of the book was so wonderful that I'll still give it 5 stars.
April 14, 2016
An awesome insight into Hesse's life, thoughts, philosophy (etc).
July 23, 2012
Hermann Hesse's Reflections is full of insight into how to be a well rounded, free thinking individual. For me, it has the essential truths of life. I love his quotes on the arts and the responsibilities of the indidivdual for themselves and for society. Honestly I've gone through this book several times underlining my favorite passages. The translations are interesting, I've found places from his actual books and reflections and there are a few that are completely different. Especially the one in Damien.
"Preoccupation with irrational, strange, uncanny forms in nature gives us a felling that a kinship exists between our innermost being and the will that created such forms. Soon we are tempted to regard them as our own moods, our own creations; we see the boundaries between ourselves and nature waver and melt away and can no longer tell whether the images on our retina spring from outward or from inner impressions. An experience of this kind is the simplest means of discovering how creative we are, how deeply our soul participates in the perpetual creation of the world. The same indivisible divinity is indeed at work in us and in nature, and if the outside world were to perish, one of us would be capable of rebuilding it, for mountain and stream, leaf and tree, root and flower, everything that has ever been formed in nature lies within us, springs from the soul whose essence is eternity. This essence is beyond our knowledge; but, primarily as the power to love and to create, it reveals itself to our feeling."
When I realized that was originally from Damien I had a hard time remembering when that could have taken place. here is the quote from the translation in Damien.
"The observation of such configurations. The surrender to Natures irrational strangely confused formations produces in us a feeling of inner harmony with the force responsible for these phenomena. We soon fall prey to the temptation of thinking of them as being our own moods, our own creations, and see the boundaries separating us from Nature begin to quiver and dissolve. We become acquainted with the state of mind in which we are unable to decide whether he images on our retina are the result of impressions coming from without or from within. Nowhere as in this exercise can we discover so easily and simply to what extent we are creative, to what extent our soul partakes of the constant creation of the world. For it is the same indivisible divinity that is active through us and in Nature, and the outside world were to be destroyed, a single one of us would be capable of rebuilding it: mountain and stream, tree and leaf, root and flower, yes, every natural form is latent within us, originates in the soul whose essence is eternity, whose essence we cannot know but which most often intimates itself to us as the power to love and create." p. 91
I think I enjoy both versions of this passage, it's just interesting how much different they are with each translation.
Eitherway, if you like reading wisdom, find this collection of insights into the world.
"Preoccupation with irrational, strange, uncanny forms in nature gives us a felling that a kinship exists between our innermost being and the will that created such forms. Soon we are tempted to regard them as our own moods, our own creations; we see the boundaries between ourselves and nature waver and melt away and can no longer tell whether the images on our retina spring from outward or from inner impressions. An experience of this kind is the simplest means of discovering how creative we are, how deeply our soul participates in the perpetual creation of the world. The same indivisible divinity is indeed at work in us and in nature, and if the outside world were to perish, one of us would be capable of rebuilding it, for mountain and stream, leaf and tree, root and flower, everything that has ever been formed in nature lies within us, springs from the soul whose essence is eternity. This essence is beyond our knowledge; but, primarily as the power to love and to create, it reveals itself to our feeling."
When I realized that was originally from Damien I had a hard time remembering when that could have taken place. here is the quote from the translation in Damien.
"The observation of such configurations. The surrender to Natures irrational strangely confused formations produces in us a feeling of inner harmony with the force responsible for these phenomena. We soon fall prey to the temptation of thinking of them as being our own moods, our own creations, and see the boundaries separating us from Nature begin to quiver and dissolve. We become acquainted with the state of mind in which we are unable to decide whether he images on our retina are the result of impressions coming from without or from within. Nowhere as in this exercise can we discover so easily and simply to what extent we are creative, to what extent our soul partakes of the constant creation of the world. For it is the same indivisible divinity that is active through us and in Nature, and the outside world were to be destroyed, a single one of us would be capable of rebuilding it: mountain and stream, tree and leaf, root and flower, yes, every natural form is latent within us, originates in the soul whose essence is eternity, whose essence we cannot know but which most often intimates itself to us as the power to love and create." p. 91
I think I enjoy both versions of this passage, it's just interesting how much different they are with each translation.
Eitherway, if you like reading wisdom, find this collection of insights into the world.
February 12, 2018
Our inner compass is deflected by every book we read; every outside mind shows us from how many other points of view the world can be considered. Then the oscillation gradually dies down, and the needle returns to its old orientations, inherent in the nature of each one of us. This is what happened to me when I stopped reading for a time. One can read so much; a book lover living in seclusion devours books and opinions as a man of the world devours people - one is sometimes amazed at how much one can stand. But then a time comes when one has to throw it all down and walk in the woods for a while, to consult with the weather, the flowers, the mists, and the winds, and find once more within oneself the changing standpoint from which one sees the world whole again.
October 4, 2022
After making my way through Hesse’s fiction, which I found to be flowery and repetitive, I have hit upon the works that resonate with me most deeply: his nonfiction and poetry. This is a collection of excerpts selected by the editors from Hesse’s entire work – letters, fiction, and essays – that function as aphorisms. One gets the impression that Hesse probably wouldn’t like this book, since he writes at one point that maxims (which are akin to aphorisms) can be both true and not true at the same time, and are often an easy way to consume that which one already agrees rather than to challenge one’s perspective. Even so, this book is brimming with wisdom, wit, and yes, fresh perspectives that push the reader to view old ideas through new lenses.
This book would be perfect for anyone who has read most of Hesse’s work and would like many of his best passages in one place, or for someone who is new to Hesse and would like a brief overview of his thoughts on art, politics, love, humor, death, etc. I recommend this above his more popular fiction.
This book would be perfect for anyone who has read most of Hesse’s work and would like many of his best passages in one place, or for someone who is new to Hesse and would like a brief overview of his thoughts on art, politics, love, humor, death, etc. I recommend this above his more popular fiction.
December 29, 2022
[...]Ἡ εὐτυχία εἶναι ἕνα πῶς, ὄχι ἕνα κάτι· ἕνα ταλέντο, όχι ἕνα ἀντικείμενο.
Τό νά εἶσαι ικανός να πετάξεις τόν ἑαυτό σου πρὸς χάριν μιας στιγμής, τό νά εἶσαι ἱκανός νά θυσιάσεις χρόνια γιὰ τὸ χαμόγελο μιᾶς γυναίκας – αὐτό εἶναι ἡ εὐτυχία.
Ὅταν οἱ διαθέσεις τῶν φίλων συγκλίνουν, ὁλόκληρος ὁ κόσμος γίνεται τό σπίτι μας γιά μιάν ὥρα.
Ἡ ὑπερεκτίμηση τῆς στιγμῆς, ἡ βιασύνη σάν οὐσία τῆς μορφῆς τῆς ζωῆς μας – αὐτοί εἶναι ἀσφαλῶς οἱ πιό ἐπικίνδυνοι ἐχθροί τῆς χαρᾶς. Ὅσο πιό πολλά γίνεται όσο πιό γρήγορα γίνεται – αὐτό εἶναι τό σύνθημα. Τό ἀποτέλεσμα εἶναι ὅλο και περισσότερη διασκέδαση και όλο καί λιγότερη χαρά.
Το μυστικό τῆς εὐτυχίας μου ἦταν τό μυστικό μιᾶς ὀνειρικῆς εὐτυχίας: ἡ ἐλευθερία τῆς ταυτόχρονης ἐμπειρίας ὅλων τῶν πραγμάτων πού μπορεί να συλλάβει κανείς, ἡ εὔκολη ἀνταλλαγή τοῦ ἐσωτερικοῦ κόσμου μέ τόν ἐξωτερικό ή δυνατότητα να κινῶ τόν χώρο καί τόν χρόνο σάν ἐναλλασσόμενα σκηνικά.
Ἐκεῖ ὅπου βρίσκουμε κάτι που μοιάζει με μουσική, ἐκεῖ πρέπει να σταθούμε· τίποτα δέν ἀξίζει τόσο νά ἐπιδιώξει κανείς ὅσο ἀξίζει ή αίσθηση της μουσικής. ἡ αἴσθηση τῆς ἀντήχησης καί τῆς ρυθμικής ζωῆς, ἡ τῆς ἁρμονίας πού δικαιώνει τὴν ὕπαρξή μας.
Η πρώτη προϋπόθεση τῆς εὐτυχίας εἶναι τό ν' ἀπελευθερωθεῖ κανείς ἀπό τόν χρόνο, κι ἑπομένως ἀπό τόν φόβο καί τήν ἐλπίδα. Οι περισσότεροι ἄνθρωποι χάνουν αὐτή τήν ἐλευθερία μεγαλώνοντας.
Οἱ ἄνθρωποι σπάνια κάνουν ὁ ἕνας τόν ἄλλο ευτυχισμένο μέ τό καθῆκον καί τήν ἠθική καί τίς ἠθικές ἐπιταγές, γιατί ἔτσι δέν κάνουν τόν ἑαυτό τους εὐτυχισμένο. Ένας ἄνθρωπος μπορεῖ νά εἶναι «καλός.» μόνο ὅμως ὅταν εἶναι ευτυχισμένος.
Ἡ εὐτυχία εἶναι ἀγάπη, τίποτ᾽ ἄλλο. Αὐτός πού μπορεί ν' ἀγαπήσει εἶναι εὐτυχισμένος.[...]
Τό νά εἶσαι ικανός να πετάξεις τόν ἑαυτό σου πρὸς χάριν μιας στιγμής, τό νά εἶσαι ἱκανός νά θυσιάσεις χρόνια γιὰ τὸ χαμόγελο μιᾶς γυναίκας – αὐτό εἶναι ἡ εὐτυχία.
Ὅταν οἱ διαθέσεις τῶν φίλων συγκλίνουν, ὁλόκληρος ὁ κόσμος γίνεται τό σπίτι μας γιά μιάν ὥρα.
Ἡ ὑπερεκτίμηση τῆς στιγμῆς, ἡ βιασύνη σάν οὐσία τῆς μορφῆς τῆς ζωῆς μας – αὐτοί εἶναι ἀσφαλῶς οἱ πιό ἐπικίνδυνοι ἐχθροί τῆς χαρᾶς. Ὅσο πιό πολλά γίνεται όσο πιό γρήγορα γίνεται – αὐτό εἶναι τό σύνθημα. Τό ἀποτέλεσμα εἶναι ὅλο και περισσότερη διασκέδαση και όλο καί λιγότερη χαρά.
Το μυστικό τῆς εὐτυχίας μου ἦταν τό μυστικό μιᾶς ὀνειρικῆς εὐτυχίας: ἡ ἐλευθερία τῆς ταυτόχρονης ἐμπειρίας ὅλων τῶν πραγμάτων πού μπορεί να συλλάβει κανείς, ἡ εὔκολη ἀνταλλαγή τοῦ ἐσωτερικοῦ κόσμου μέ τόν ἐξωτερικό ή δυνατότητα να κινῶ τόν χώρο καί τόν χρόνο σάν ἐναλλασσόμενα σκηνικά.
Ἐκεῖ ὅπου βρίσκουμε κάτι που μοιάζει με μουσική, ἐκεῖ πρέπει να σταθούμε· τίποτα δέν ἀξίζει τόσο νά ἐπιδιώξει κανείς ὅσο ἀξίζει ή αίσθηση της μουσικής. ἡ αἴσθηση τῆς ἀντήχησης καί τῆς ρυθμικής ζωῆς, ἡ τῆς ἁρμονίας πού δικαιώνει τὴν ὕπαρξή μας.
Η πρώτη προϋπόθεση τῆς εὐτυχίας εἶναι τό ν' ἀπελευθερωθεῖ κανείς ἀπό τόν χρόνο, κι ἑπομένως ἀπό τόν φόβο καί τήν ἐλπίδα. Οι περισσότεροι ἄνθρωποι χάνουν αὐτή τήν ἐλευθερία μεγαλώνοντας.
Οἱ ἄνθρωποι σπάνια κάνουν ὁ ἕνας τόν ἄλλο ευτυχισμένο μέ τό καθῆκον καί τήν ἠθική καί τίς ἠθικές ἐπιταγές, γιατί ἔτσι δέν κάνουν τόν ἑαυτό τους εὐτυχισμένο. Ένας ἄνθρωπος μπορεῖ νά εἶναι «καλός.» μόνο ὅμως ὅταν εἶναι ευτυχισμένος.
Ἡ εὐτυχία εἶναι ἀγάπη, τίποτ᾽ ἄλλο. Αὐτός πού μπορεί ν' ἀγαπήσει εἶναι εὐτυχισμένος.[...]
September 22, 2017
Esse livro me caiu em mãos por acaso entre alguns livros velhos de minha mãe. Conheci Hess pela cauda, O Jogo das Contas de Vidro, e essa me agradou enormemente. O sincretismo e a mistura de credos não me incomodou nenhum pouco nas obras que pus mãos em seguida, O Lobo da Estepe me foi muito agradável, Damien também - apesar dos personagens não me seduzirem. Siddharta também apeteceu-me grandemente. Seu livro de contos Pequeno Mundo é, com sinceridade, uma pérola.
Agora, esse apanhado foi menos que o esperado, para mim. Os pensamentos me parecem deverás temporais, a teosofia acentuado parece diluir-se tão exageradamente que termina em lugar nenhum, me vi distraído por quase toda a leitura. Possivelmente esse juízo seja algo de minha ignorância, talvez precise fazer como dita o título "Guardar e Ler".
"Tenho sempre, ainda hoje, uma crença e a ela não renuncio nem para mim nem para os outros - é a crença de que não acontece conosco nada de feliz ou infeliz, a que não possamos atribuir algum valor ou sentido."
Agora, esse apanhado foi menos que o esperado, para mim. Os pensamentos me parecem deverás temporais, a teosofia acentuado parece diluir-se tão exageradamente que termina em lugar nenhum, me vi distraído por quase toda a leitura. Possivelmente esse juízo seja algo de minha ignorância, talvez precise fazer como dita o título "Guardar e Ler".
"Tenho sempre, ainda hoje, uma crença e a ela não renuncio nem para mim nem para os outros - é a crença de que não acontece conosco nada de feliz ou infeliz, a que não possamos atribuir algum valor ou sentido."
December 31, 2023
"Lektüre für Minuten" ist eine facettenreiche Sammlung von Kernaussagen, die verschiedene Lebensbereiche wie Politik, Gesellschaft, Bildung, Kunst, Glück und viele mehr abdecken. Diese Aussagen sind sowohl seinen fiktionalen als auch nicht-fiktionalen Schriften entnommen worden. Das Buch mag zwar rasch gelesen werden können, doch Hesses Aussagen regen so intensiv zum Nachdenken an, dass man häufig mehrere Minuten verweilt, um über sie zu reflektieren.
Nachdem ich das Buch gelesen habe, steht für mich fest, dass dies sicherlich nicht das letzte Mal war. Hesse präsentiert Perspektiven, die in verschiedenen Lebensphasen neue Bedeutung erlangen. Darüber hinaus fungiert das Werk als Ansporn, sich weiter in Hesses umfangreiches Schaffen zu vertiefen, worin sein Aussagen ihren Ursprung finden.
Nachdem ich das Buch gelesen habe, steht für mich fest, dass dies sicherlich nicht das letzte Mal war. Hesse präsentiert Perspektiven, die in verschiedenen Lebensphasen neue Bedeutung erlangen. Darüber hinaus fungiert das Werk als Ansporn, sich weiter in Hesses umfangreiches Schaffen zu vertiefen, worin sein Aussagen ihren Ursprung finden.
January 29, 2023
Hesse is brilliant, genius, hilarious and way ahead of his time.
This was my toilet reading for the last year. It's in perfect bite-size chunks and I marveled at many a quote. Often with writers I enjoy I am unsure If I would enjoy them personally or to be around them, but I think conversing with Hesse would be delightfully stimulating though tinged with sadness.
This was my toilet reading for the last year. It's in perfect bite-size chunks and I marveled at many a quote. Often with writers I enjoy I am unsure If I would enjoy them personally or to be around them, but I think conversing with Hesse would be delightfully stimulating though tinged with sadness.
February 3, 2021
Bei diesem Buch ist der Titel Programm: angenehm für zwischendurch, als zusammenhängende Lektüre jedoch unbrauchbar, da zu viele Informationen innerhalb kurzer Zeit erwähnt werden.
Das Buch eignet sich hervorragend, um gedankliche Anregungen zu den unterschiedlichsten Themen zu gewinnen.
Das Buch eignet sich hervorragend, um gedankliche Anregungen zu den unterschiedlichsten Themen zu gewinnen.
April 14, 2022
M'ha agradat perquè m'agrada Hermann Hesse, i la veritat és que moltes de les seves idees encara són actuals. Una bona feina de selecció, i els epíleg amb el context s'agraeixen. En conclusió, no és indispensable però és una lectura rápida i agraïda pels fans de l'autor.
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April 5, 2021Letteratura tedesca
December 4, 2016
Naujoji biblija
September 1, 2016
This collection of Hesse’s views on subjects spanning from the most mundane to the most profound allows the complex personality of this great author to become just a bit more accessible to the millions of minds he touched with his work. Through a series of marvelous insights, the reader can peek into the mind of the man who has given so much to the world literature.
November 3, 2013
I read this one in bits and bites -- early in the morning, while having breakfast; late at night, before slumber; boiling water for a cup of tea; in the (vet or) doctor's waiting room -- as it should be, is my impression.
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April 30, 2015Gave up. Some other time.
December 25, 2016
Tekst i njegov kontekst su neodvojivi.
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