Demian

by Hermann Hesse

Alas, I now know only too well that there is nothing in the world more hateful to a person than walking the path that leads to himself!

But I think we should honor everything, and worship everything—the whole world is sacred, not just this artificially partitioned official half! We need not only church service but a devil’s service. That’s what I think. Or else we need to create a God who includes the devil too, and whose eyes we don’t need to cover when the most natural things in the world take place in front of him.”

When we hate someone, what we hate is something in him, or in our image of him, that is part of ourselves. Nothing that isn’t in us ever bothers us.”

Oh, how I wanted him to get angry, defend himself, scream at me! He did none of that, so I had to do it all myself, on the inside.

“For as long as that dream is your destiny, you should stay true to it,”