Gertrude Quotes

“That is where my dearest and brightest dreams have ranged — to hear for the duration of a heartbeat the universe and the totality of life in its mysterious, innate harmony.”
― Hermann Hesse, Gertrude

“Youth ends when egotism does; maturity begins when one lives for others.”
― Hermann Hesse, Gertrude

“If that was love, with cruelty here and humiliation there, then it was better to live without love.”
― Hermann Hesse, Gertrude

“I suddenly saw how sad and artificial my life had been during this period, for the loves, friends, habits and pleasures of these years were discarded like badly fitting clothes. I parted from them without pain and all that remained was to wonder that I could have endured them so long.”
― Hermann Hesse, Gertrude

“In any case, the most lively young people become the best old people, not those who pretend to be as wise as grandfathers while they are still at school.”
― Hermann Hesse, Gertrude

“Muoth was right. On growing old, one becomes more contented than in one's youth, which I will not therefore revile, for in all my dreams I hear my youth like a wonderful song which now sounds more harmonious than it did in reality, and even sweeter”
― Hermann Hesse, Gertrude

“People like best what is hard for them to obtain.”
― Hermann Hesse, Gertrude

“Young people have many pleasures and many sorrows, because they have only themselves to think of.”
― Hermann Hesse, Gertrude

“It is pure fiction that there is no bridge between one person and another, … On the contrary, what people have in common with each other is much more and of greater importance than what each person has in his own nature and which makes him different from others.'
'That is possible,' I said, 'but what good does it do me to know all this?”
― Hermann Hesse, Gertrude

“Era linistitor sa stiu ca seara nu voi mai trai.”
― Hermann Hesse, Gertrude

“There I often walked along the shore, listened to the sea, and thought as I had done in my youth, with amazement and horror, about the sad and senseless confusion of life, that one could love in vain, that people who meant well toward each other should work out their destinies separately, each one going his own inexplicable way, and how each would like to help and draw close to the other and yet was unable to do so, as in troubled meaningless dreams.”
― Hermann Hesse, Gertrude

“None of us knew how terribly these two fine people suffered in secret. I do not think that they ever stopped loving each other, but deep down in their nature they did not belong to one another.”
― Hermann Hesse, Gertrude

“A melody occurs to you; you sing it silently, inwardly ... ; you steep your being in it; it takes possession of all your strength and emotions, and during the time it lives in you, it effaces all that is fortuitous, evil, coarse and sad in you; it brings the world into harmony with you, it makes burdens light and gives wings to the benumbed.”
― Hermann Hesse, Gertrude

“I saw these passionate people reel about and drift haphazardly as if driven by a storm, the man filled with desire today, satiated on the morrow, loving fiercely and discarding brutally, sure of no affection and happy in no love; then there were the women who were drawn to him, suffering insults and beatings, finally rejected and yet still clinging to him, degraded by jealousy and despised love, but still remaining faithful.”
― Hermann Hesse, Gertrude

“Fate was not kind, life was capricious and terrible, and there was no good or reason in nature. But there is good and reason in us, in human beings, with whom fortune plays, and we can be stronger than nature and fate, if only for a few hours. And we can draw close to one another in times of need, and live to comfort each other.

And sometimes when the black depths are silent, we can do even more. We can then be gods for moments, stretch out a commanding hand and create things which were not there before and which, when they are created, continue to live without us. Out of sounds, words and other frail and worthless things, we can construct playthings--songs and poems full of meaning, consolation and goodness, more beautiful and enduring than the grim sport of fortune and destiny.”
― Hermann Hesse, Gertrude

“If I were poet now, I would not resist the temptation to trace my life back through the delicate shadows of my childhood to the precious and sheltered sources of my earliest memories. But these possessions are far too dear and sacred for the person I now am to spoil for myself. All there is to say of my childhood is that it was good and happy. I was given the freedom to discover my own inclinations and talents, to fashion my inmost pleasures and sorrows myself and to regard the future not as an alien higher power but as the hope and product of my own strength.”
― Hermann Hesse, Gertrude

“When I consider my life objectively, it does not seem particularly happy. Yet I cannot really call it unhappy, despite all my mistakes. After all, it is quite foolish to talk about happiness and unhappiness, for it seems to me that I would not exchange the unhappiest days of my life for all the happy ones.”
― Hermann Hesse, Gertrude

“It was a strange business and it made a sad and curious impression on me; everything that had belonged to me in these earlier years of my life left me, was alien and lost to me. I suddenly saw how sad and artificial my life had been during this period, for the loves, friends, habits and pleasures of these years were discarded like badly fitting clothes. I parted from them without pain and all that remained was to wonder that I could have endured them so long.”
― Hermann Hesse, Gertrude

“Wenn mir Musik die Seele bewegte, dann verstand ich ohne Worte doch alles, fühlte in der Tiefe alles Lebens reine Harmonie und glaubte zu wissen, daß ein Sinn und schönes Gesetz in allem Geschehen verborgen sei. Wenn es auch eine Täuschung war, ich lebte doch darin und war darin beglückt.”
― Hermann Hesse, Gertrude

“Hasta la fecha, jamás he perdido la sensación de las contradicciones que hay detrás de todo y el conocimiento. Mi existencia ha sido miserable y complicada, y sin embargo, para otros y en ocasiones incluso para mí, parece haber sido maravillosa.”
― Hermann Hesse, Gertrude

“So strange is the human being that in the midst of my new life and fulfilled wishes, I was sometimes aware of a slight, fleeting, subconscious desire for solitude, for even boring and empty days. It seemed to me that the time I had spent at home and the dreary uneventful life from which I was so glad to escape, was something desirable.”
― Hermann Hesse, Gertrude

“O music! A melody occurs to you; you sing it silently, inwardly only; you steep your being in it; it takes possession of all your strength and emotions, and during the time it lives in you, it effaces all that is fortuitous, evil, coarse, and sad in you; it brings the world into harmony with you, it makes burdens light and gives wings to depressed spirits. The melody of a folk song can do that. And first of all harmony! For each harmonious chord of pure-toned notes - those of church bells, for example - fills the spirit with grace and delight, a feeling that is intensified by every additional note; and at times this can enchant the heart and make it tremble with bliss as no other sensual pleasure can.”
― Hermann Hesse, Gertrude

“Aun cuando mi destino externo se haya desenvuelto como sucede para todos, inevitablemente y según lo decretado por los dioses, mi vida íntima es obra propiamente mía, con sus gozos y amarguras, y soy yo, en lo personal, el responsable de la misma.”
― Herman Hesse, Gertrude

“Es una mera ficción eso de que no existe un puente de unión entre una y otra gente, y que todos viven en la soledad y la incomprensión. Por lo contrario, lo que la gente tiene en común con los demás es algo más grande e importante de lo que cada ser humano tiene por naturaleza y lo que lo distingue de los demás.”
― Hermann Hesse, Gertrude

“On one part of the footpath where a thin trickle of water from a small spring kept it damp, I found … a swarm of … small, blue butterflies drinking the water. … I only went that way on sunny days and each time the dense, blue swarm was there, and each time it was a holiday.”
― Hermann Hesse, Gertrude

“Sufría menos con un dolor real y físico que con el temor de agonía de que volviera la conciencia y me arrebataran la copa del olvido que la muerte me brindaba.”
― Hermann Hesse, Gertrude

“Yalnız yaşıyorsunuz, yalnızlığınızdan sizi yoksun bırakmak istemem. Ama zaman zaman insan temiz kalpli ve dürüst birinin yüzünü görmeden duramıyor.”
― Hermann Hesse, Gertrude

“Youth is the most difficult time of life. For example, suicide rarely occurs amongst old people.”
― Hermann Hesse, Gertrude

“Le nace a uno cierta melodía, la canta uno silenciosamente, en el interior solamente; toda la naturaleza individual se posesiona de la tonada y se deja uno llevar por ella por su fuerza y emotividad, y lo notable es que mientras se adueña de uno se olvida lo fortuito, lo banal y lo burdo, nos armoniza con el universo y nos da fuerzas y alas contra nuestra torpeza y depresiones.”
― Herman Hesse, Gertrude

“there is good and reason in us … with whom fortune plays, and we can be stronger than … fate, if only for a few hours. … we can draw closer to one another in times of need, understand and love one another, and live to comfort each other.”
― Hermann Hesse, Gertrude