As a body everyone is single, as a soul never.
Meaning of the quote
The quote suggests that while our physical bodies are separate and individual, our souls or inner selves are never truly alone. It means that even though we each have our own unique physical form, our spiritual and emotional connections to others are constant and everlasting.
About Hermann Hesse
Hermann Hesse was a celebrated German-Swiss writer, poet, and painter. He had a fascination with Eastern spirituality and explored themes of self-discovery and individuality in his renowned works like Demian, Steppenwolf, and Siddhartha. Despite facing personal struggles in his youth, Hesse went on to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1946 for his impactful literary contributions.
More quotes from Hermann Hesse
Words do not express thoughts very well. They always become a little different immediately after they are expressed, a little distorted, a little foolish.
Nobel Prize winning German-Swiss poet, novelist and painter (1877-1962)
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.
Nobel Prize winning German-Swiss poet, novelist and painter (1877-1962)
Without words, without writing and without books there would be no history, there could be no concept of humanity.
Nobel Prize winning German-Swiss poet, novelist and painter (1877-1962)
What could I say to you that would be of value, except that perhaps you seek too much, that as a result of your seeking you cannot find.
Nobel Prize winning German-Swiss poet, novelist and painter (1877-1962)
One never reaches home, but wherever friendly paths intersect the whole world looks like home for a time.
Nobel Prize winning German-Swiss poet, novelist and painter (1877-1962)
People with courage and character always seem sinister to the rest.
Nobel Prize winning German-Swiss poet, novelist and painter (1877-1962)
All men are prepared to accomplish the incredible if their ideals are threatened.
Nobel Prize winning German-Swiss poet, novelist and painter (1877-1962)
To study history means submitting to chaos and nevertheless retaining faith in order and meaning.
Nobel Prize winning German-Swiss poet, novelist and painter (1877-1962)
If a man has nothing to eat, fasting is the most intelligent thing he can do.
Nobel Prize winning German-Swiss poet, novelist and painter (1877-1962)
The truth is lived, not taught.
Nobel Prize winning German-Swiss poet, novelist and painter (1877-1962)
To be able to throw one’s self away for the sake of a moment, to be able to sacrifice years for a woman’s smile – that is happiness.
Nobel Prize winning German-Swiss poet, novelist and painter (1877-1962)
It is possible for one never to transgress a single law and still be a bastard.
Nobel Prize winning German-Swiss poet, novelist and painter (1877-1962)
There’s no reality except the one contained within us. That’s why so many people live an unreal life. They take images outside them for reality and never allow the world within them to assert itself.
Nobel Prize winning German-Swiss poet, novelist and painter (1877-1962)
Solitude is independence.
Nobel Prize winning German-Swiss poet, novelist and painter (1877-1962)
Happiness is a how; not a what. A talent, not an object.
Nobel Prize winning German-Swiss poet, novelist and painter (1877-1962)
Only the ideas that we really live have any value.
Nobel Prize winning German-Swiss poet, novelist and painter (1877-1962)
The bourgeois prefers comfort to pleasure, convenience to liberty, and a pleasant temperature to the deathly inner consuming fire.
Nobel Prize winning German-Swiss poet, novelist and painter (1877-1962)
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.
Nobel Prize winning German-Swiss poet, novelist and painter (1877-1962)
Every man is more than just himself; he also represents the unique, the very special and always significant and remarkable point at which the world’s phenomena intersect, only once in this way, and never again.
Nobel Prize winning German-Swiss poet, novelist and painter (1877-1962)
Our mind is capable of passing beyond the dividing line we have drawn for it. Beyond the pairs of opposites of which the world consists, other, new insights begin.
Nobel Prize winning German-Swiss poet, novelist and painter (1877-1962)
Those who cannot think or take responsibility for themselves need, and clamor for, a leader.
Nobel Prize winning German-Swiss poet, novelist and painter (1877-1962)
In each individual the spirit is made flesh, in each one the whole of creation suffers, in each one a Savior is crucified.
Nobel Prize winning German-Swiss poet, novelist and painter (1877-1962)
The call of death is a call of love. Death can be sweet if we answer it in the affirmative, if we accept it as one of the great eternal forms of life and transformation.
Nobel Prize winning German-Swiss poet, novelist and painter (1877-1962)
When dealing with the insane, the best method is to pretend to be sane.
Nobel Prize winning German-Swiss poet, novelist and painter (1877-1962)
There is, so I believe, in the essence of everything, something that we cannot call learning. There is, my friend, only a knowledge – that is everywhere.
Nobel Prize winning German-Swiss poet, novelist and painter (1877-1962)
Within us there is someone who knows everything, wills everything, does everything better than we ourselves.
Nobel Prize winning German-Swiss poet, novelist and painter (1877-1962)
Meaning and reality were not hidden somewhere behind things, they were in them, in all of them.
Nobel Prize winning German-Swiss poet, novelist and painter (1877-1962)
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.
Nobel Prize winning German-Swiss poet, novelist and painter (1877-1962)
Everything becomes a little different as soon as it is spoken out loud.
Nobel Prize winning German-Swiss poet, novelist and painter (1877-1962)
Perhaps people like us cannot love. Ordinary people can – that is their secret.
Nobel Prize winning German-Swiss poet, novelist and painter (1877-1962)
You are only afraid if you are not in harmony with yourself. People are afraid because they have never owned up to themselves.
Nobel Prize winning German-Swiss poet, novelist and painter (1877-1962)
Eternity is a mere moment, just long enough for a joke.
Nobel Prize winning German-Swiss poet, novelist and painter (1877-1962)
As a body everyone is single, as a soul never.
Nobel Prize winning German-Swiss poet, novelist and painter (1877-1962)
Some of us think holding on makes us strong; but sometimes it is letting go.
Nobel Prize winning German-Swiss poet, novelist and painter (1877-1962)
Knowledge can be communicated, but not wisdom. One can find it, live it, be fortified by it, do wonders through it, but one cannot communicate and teach it.
Nobel Prize winning German-Swiss poet, novelist and painter (1877-1962)
What constitutes a real, live human being is more of a mystery than ever these days, and men each one of whom is a valuable, unique experiment on the part of nature are shot down wholesale.
Nobel Prize winning German-Swiss poet, novelist and painter (1877-1962)