Skip to content

Certainly you shouldn't go kill somebody or rape a girl, no! But you haven't reached the point where you can understand the actual meaning of "permitted" and "forbidden." You've only sensed part of the truth.

— Hermann Hesse Demian (1919)

Another quote →

More quotes by Hermann Hesse

In each individual the spirit has become flesh, in each man the creation suffers, within each one a redeemer is nailed to the cross.

Demian (1919)

We cannot evade life's course, but we can school ourselves to be superior to fortune and also to look unflinchingly upon the most painful things.

Gertrude (1910)

The bird fights its way out of the egg. The egg is the world. Who would be born must first destroy a world. The bird flies to God. The God's name is Abraxas.

Demian (1919)

Our god's name is Abraxas and he is God and Satan and he contains both the luminous and the dark world.

Demian (1919)

I realize today that nothing in the world is more distasteful to a man than to take the path that leads to himself.

Demian (1919)

All Hermann Hesse quotes →

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Hermann Hesse (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.