Autobiographical Writings Quotes

“People of my sort are content with little and yet only with the highest. Amid pain and despair and a gagging disgust at life, always once again for a holy instant to hear a yes to the question of the meaning of this life, which is so hard to bear - though at the next instant we may be smothered once more by the dim flood, that suffices us, from that we can live for quite a while and not merely live, not just endure life, but love and praise it.”
― Hermann Hesse, Autobiographical Writings

“With the poet it was exactly the same as with the hero, and all strong, handsome, high-spirited, non-commonplace figures and enterprises: in the past they were magnificent, every school book was filled with their praises; in the present, in real life, people hated them, and presumably teachers were especially selected and trained to prevent as far as possible the rise of magnificent, free human beings and the accomplishment of great and splendid deeds.”
― Hermann Hesse, Autobiographical Writings

“The life of the grownups had caught me, at first by a lock of hair or a finger, but soon it would have caught and bound me completely, the life lived according to goals, according to numbers, the life of order and jobs, or professions and examinations; soon the hour would strike for me too, soon I would be undergraduate, graduate student, minister, professor, would pay calls with a high hat and leather gloves to go with it, would no longer understand children, would perhaps envy them. But actually in my heart I didn't want any of this, I did not want to leave my world where things were good and precious. There was, to be sure, a completely secret goal for me when I thought about the future. The one thing I ardently wished for was to become a magician.”
― Hermann Hesse, Autobiographical Writings

“Then came the summer of 1914, and suddenly everything looked different, inwardly and outwardly. It became evident that our former well-being had rested on insecure foundations, and accordingly there now began a period of misery, the great education. The so-called time of testing had come, and I cannot say that it found me better prepared, worthier, or superior to anyone else. What distinguished me from others at that time was only that I lacked the great compensation so many others possessed: enthusiasm.”
― Hermann Hesse, Autobiographical Writings