John

“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. ”
― Hermann Hesse

“Alas, where is there still a sea in which one could drown: thus our lament resounds – across shallow swamps. ”
― Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spake Zarathustra: A Book for All and None

“Sentimentality is a basking in feelings that in reality you don't take seriously enough to make the slightest sacrifice to or ever translate into action. ”
― Hermann Hesse

“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.”
― Hermann Hesse