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

Hermann Hesse

Youth ends when egotism does; maturity begins when one lives for others.

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

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

Hermann Hesse

When you like someone, you like them in spite of their faults. When you love someone, you love them with their faults.

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

In eternity there is no time, only an instant long enough for a joke.

Hermann Hesse

We are not going in circles, we are going upwards. The path is a spiral; we have already climbed many steps.

Hermann Hesse

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

Hermann Hesse

It is possible for one never to transgress a single law and still be a bastard.

Hermann Hesse

Happiness is love, nothing else. A man who is capable of love is happy.

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