It is the law of service. He who wishes to live long must serve, but he who wishes to rule does not live long...
— Hermann HesseJourney to the East (1932)
Use itGS4: servant leadership; those who serve endure, those who seek to rule fall.
Quotes / Thinkers / Hermann Hesse
Thinker · 7 quotes
Hermann Hesse quotes for UPSC
7 sourced quotes by Hermann Hesse on mind & self-awareness, civil services & public service, truth & wisdom, emotions & self-control, relationships & friendship, with a use case for each in GS4, Essay and interviews.
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Wisdom is not communicable. The wisdom which a wise man tries to communicate always sounds foolish... Knowledge can be communicated, but not wisdom. One can find it, live it, do wonders through it, but one cannot communicate and teach it.
— Hermann HesseSiddhartha (1922)
Use itEssay on education; knowledge can be taught but wisdom must be lived.
Each man had only one genuine vocation — to find the way to himself
Use itEssay on purpose of life; self-discovery as the one genuine vocation.
I realize today that nothing in the world is more distasteful to a man than to take the path that leads to himself.
Use itEssay on self-knowledge; the hardest journey is the path to oneself.
Translation: If you hate a person, you hate something in him that is part of yourself. What isn't part of ourselves doesn't disturb us.
Use itGS4 emotional intelligence: hatred mirrors our own flaws; reflect before reacting.
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: each the other's opposite and complement.
— Hermann HesseNarcissus and Goldmund (1930)
Use itEssay on unity in diversity; recognise and honour differences rather than erase them.
You must find your dream, then the way becomes easy. But there is no dream that lasts forever, each dream is followed by another, and one should not cling to any particular one.
Use itInterview: on evolving goals; find a dream but don't cling rigidly to one.