The Painter's Keys Community For Artists The Painter's Keys, a book by Robert Genn

Search the Painter's Keys:

Search for an author:

To Subscribe: enter your email address and click "Go"

Absolutely free, no strings. Cancel at any time. You'll get the valuable twice-weekly letter only.

Your email address will not be lent, sold or put on any spam or other nasty list. Guaranteed.

Robert's worldwide gift that artists love to get.
Bob’s Best

Mastering colour, learning to paint, finding out how successful artists run their lives, or setting up an artist’s website--these are Robert Genn’s top picks of the best currently available DVDs and Downloads. They have been studied and evaluated by Robert and have received his unsolicited “Seal of Approval.” Check out the selection here.

Resource of Art Quotations

For researchers or artists just looking for inspiration, this is the world's largest collection of art quotes and sayings--online or in a book. It's entirely the work of volunteer subscribers and others. New art quotes are going in daily. Our staff will make all your entries searchable by author and subject. One word of caution--don't try to print it all out--you will run out of ink if you do.

Subscribe to the Free Twice-Weekly Letter: See our Welcome Letter about subscription benefits and an outline of the features of this website.

Receive daily art quotes through Twitter

Follow us on Twitter to receive daily inspirational art quotes as well as lots of other great info for artists.



Hermann Hesse Art Quotes - (40 quotes)

Hermann Hesse - From the Accomplishment category:

All men are prepared to accomplish the incredible if their ideals are threatened. (Hermann Hesse)

Hermann Hesse - From the Aging category:

I cannot tell my story without reaching a long way back. (Hermann Hesse)

Hermann Hesse - From the Authority category:

-Demian...
Those who are too lazy and comfortable to think for themselves and be their own judges obey the laws. Others sense their own laws within them. (Hermann Hesse)

Hermann Hesse - From the Books category:

Without words, without writing and without books there would be no history, there could be no concept of humanity. (Hermann Hesse)

Hermann Hesse - From the Brother/Sisterhood category:

As a body everyone is single, as a soul never. (Hermann Hesse)

Hermann Hesse - From the Burning category:

The bourgeois prefers comfort to pleasure, convenience to liberty, and a pleasant temperature to the deathly inner consuming fire. (Hermann Hesse)

Hermann Hesse - From the Chaos category:

To study history means submitting to chaos and nevertheless retaining faith in order and meaning. (Hermann Hesse)

Hermann Hesse - From the Criticism category:

People with courage and character always seem sinister to the rest. (Hermann Hesse)

Hermann Hesse - From the Desire category:

Whoever wants music instead of noise, joy instead of pleasure, soul instead of gold, creative work instead of business, passion instead of foolery, finds no home in this trivial world of ours. (Hermann Hesse)

Hermann Hesse - From the Difficulty category:

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. (Hermann Hesse)

Hermann Hesse - From the Difficulty category:

I wanted only to live in accord with the promptings which came from my true self. Why was that so very difficult? (Hermann Hesse)

Hermann Hesse - From the Dreams category:

You must find your dream... but no dream lasts forever, each dream is followed by another, and one should not cling to any particular dream. (Hermann Hesse)

Hermann Hesse - From the Eccentricity category:

When dealing with the insane, the best method is to pretend to be sane. (Hermann Hesse)

Hermann Hesse - From the Emotion category:

-Steppenwolf...
A wild longing for strong emotions and sensations seethes in me, a rage against this toneless, flat, normal and sterile life. (Hermann Hesse)

Hermann Hesse - From the Excellence category:

Within us there is someone who knows everything, wills everything, does everything better than we ourselves. (Hermann Hesse)

Hermann Hesse - From the Failure category:

All men of goodwill have this in common – that our works put us to shame. (Hermann Hesse)

Hermann Hesse - From the Fear category:

You are only afraid if you are not in harmony with yourself. People are afraid because they have never owned up to themselves. (Hermann Hesse)

Hermann Hesse - From the Happiness category:

Happiness is a how; not a what. A talent, not an object. (Hermann Hesse)

Hermann Hesse - From the Happiness category:

- Siddhartha...
Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared. (Hermann Hesse)

Hermann Hesse - From the Humanity category:

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. (Hermann Hesse)

Hermann Hesse - From the Ideas category:

Only the ideas that we really live have any value. (Hermann Hesse)

Hermann Hesse - From the Journey category:

One never reaches home, but wherever friendly paths intersect the whole world looks like home for a time. (Hermann Hesse)

Hermann Hesse - From the Knowledge category:

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. (Hermann Hesse)

Hermann Hesse - From the Leadership category:

Those who cannot think or take responsibility for themselves need, and clamor for, a leader. (Hermann Hesse)

Hermann Hesse - From the Life category:

My real self wanders elsewhere, far away, wanders on and on invisibly and has nothing to do with my life. (Hermann Hesse)

Hermann Hesse - From the Listening category:

Trees are sanctuaries. Whoever knows how to speak to them, whoever knows how to listen to them, can learn the truth. (Hermann Hesse)

Hermann Hesse - From the Love category:

Oh, love isn't there to make us happy. I believe it exists to show us how much we can endure. (Hermann Hesse)

Hermann Hesse - From the Nature category:

For me, trees have always been the most penetrating preachers. I revere them when they live in tribes and families, in forests and groves. And even more I revere them when they stand alone. They are like lonely persons. Not like hermits who have stolen away out of some weakness, but like great, solitary men, like Beethoven and Nietzsche. (Hermann Hesse)

Hermann Hesse - From the Opposites category:

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. (Hermann Hesse)

Hermann Hesse - From the Questions category:

I have been and still am a seeker, but I have ceased to question stars and books; I have begun to listen to the teaching my blood whispers to me. (Hermann Hesse)

Hermann Hesse - From the Reality category:

There is no reality except the one contained within us. That is why so many people live such an unreal life. They take the images outside them for reality and never allow the world within to assert itself. (Hermann Hesse)

Hermann Hesse - From the Searching category:

- Siddhartha...
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. (Hermann Hesse)

Hermann Hesse - From the Solitude category:

Solitude is independence. (Hermann Hesse)

Hermann Hesse - From the Strength category:

Some of us think holding on makes us strong; but sometimes it is letting go. (Hermann Hesse)

Hermann Hesse - From the Time category:

-Steppenwolf...
Eternity is a mere moment, just long enough for a joke. (Hermann Hesse)

Hermann Hesse - From the Trust category:

The highest art... sets down its creations and trusts in their magic, without fear of not being understood. (Hermann Hesse)

Hermann Hesse - From the Truth category:

The truth is lived, not taught. (Hermann Hesse)

Hermann Hesse - From the Uniqueness category:

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. (Hermann Hesse)

Hermann Hesse - From the Wisdom category:

- Siddhartha...
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. (Hermann Hesse)

Hermann Hesse - From the Words category:

Words do not express thoughts very well. They always become a little different immediately after they are expressed, a little distorted, a little foolish. (Hermann Hesse)



back to Author Index

Editor: Robert Genn

Assistant Editor: Shawn Jackson

Associate Editors:

Scott Altman, Bonnie Austin, Karen Austin, Michele Becker, Joe Blodgett, Norman Brown, Alyce Bryson, Leanne Cadden, Penny Duane, Max Elliot, Derek Franklin, Sara Genn, Mardy Grothe, Harry Hartley, Sue Holland, Sue Legault, Tammy McManus, Eric Mewhinney, Bruce Miller, Laura Parrish, Andrea Pratt, Dan Roberts, Shirley Rochon, Gilbert Roy, John Sherlock, Victor Wong,
And many others who have so far contributed one quote or a few. Please join us and add more at

World's largest resource of art quotes, art sayings, creativity quotes,
painting quotes, famous art quotes, inspirational art quotes.

Robert's worldwide gift that artists love to get.

Absolutely free, no strings. Cancel at any time.
You'll get the valuable twice-weekly letter only.
Your email address will not be lent, sold or put
on any spam or other nasty list. Guaranteed.
CLICK HERE TO SUBSCRIBE FREE

Last modified: May 21, 2013