Absolute suffering is the means to absolute beauty
“The beautiful and imperishable comes into existence due to the suffering of individual perishable creatures who themselves are not beautiful, and must be reshaped to […]
quotes
It is not upon you alone the dark patches fall
“It is not upon you alone the dark patches fall,The dark threw its patches down upon me also,The best I had done seem’d to me […]
Abnormally normal people
“The real hopeless victims of mental illness are to be found among those who appear to be most normal […] they are normal only in […]
The voice of destiny
“Might your bitter pain not be the voice of destiny, might that voice not become sweet once you understand it?” – Hermann Hesse *** “Great […]
To satisfy personal need or desire
From an article about the suicide of Mark Linkous: … paramedics found Linkous slumped against the foot of a pink door with the gun atop […]
Search for meaning
Some quotes from A Confession, Leo Tolstoy: My life came to a standstill. I could breathe, eat, drink and sleep, and I could not help […]
Your true nature lies immeasurably high above you
“Let the youthful soul look back on life with the question: what have you truly loved up to now, what has elevated your soul, what […]
Misfits to whom the art of life and the art of love are foreign
“[Herman] Hesse’s pre-1917 heroes [in his novels] are made of soft stuff. They are predominantly esthetes who live only in dreams, hopes and anticipation, and […]
Yes and No
What is a rebel? A man who says no, but whose refusal does not imply a renunciation. He is also a man who says yes, […]
Stillness in the midst of chaos
“Art has something to do with the achievement of stillness in the midst of chaos. A stillness which characterizes prayer, too, in the eye of […]
The Romantic
“That the life of man is but a dream, many a man has surmised heretofore; and I, too, am everywhere pursued by this feeling. When […]
Fear gone like an operation. Something else grew in its place.
“It had started the night before when he had wakened and heard the lion roaring somewhere up along the river. It was a deep sound […]
The need to link the real and the ideal
We are all deprived; we are all disappointed; and therefore we are all, in some sense idealists. The need to link the real and the […]
He’s talking in a funny language
Ester: What’s he saying? Johan: How should I know? He’s talking in a funny language. Because he’s frightened. – from The Silence screenplay, Ingmar Bergman