Hermann Hesse Quotes

Seeking means: to have a goal; but finding means: to be free, to be receptive, to have no goal.

Never be so focused on what you're looking for that you overlook the thing you actually find.

When someone is seeking, it happens quite easily that he only sees the thing that he is seeking; that he is unable to find anything, unable to absorb anything, because he is only thinking of the thing he is seeking, because he has a goal, because he is obsessed with his goal. Seeking means: to have a goal; but finding means: to be free, to be receptive, to have no goal. You, O worthy one, are perhaps indeed a seeker, for in striving towards your goal, you do not see many things that are under your nose.

Seeking means: to have a goal; but finding means: to be free, to be receptive, to have no goal. You, O worthy one, are perhaps indeed a seeker, for in striving towards your goal, you do not see many things that are under your nose.

You’ll miss the best things if you keep your eyes shut.

Always be on the lookout for the presence of wonder.

In my walks, I would fain return to my senses. What business have I in the woods if I am thinking of something out of the woods?

Do you, and the rest is background noise.

When there are thoughts, it is distraction: when there are no thoughts, it is meditation.

What people call serendipity sometimes is just having your eyes open.

Experience, as a desire for experience, does not come off. We must not study ourselves while having an experience.

Correct meditation means correctly understanding your situation moment by moment - what are you doing now? Only do it! Then, each action is complete; each action is enough. Then no thinking, so each moment I can perceive everything just like this.

There's also a sense of freedom. I was so obsessed by this problem that I was thinking about if all the time - when I woke up in the morning, when I went to sleep at night, and that went on for eight years.

I'm in a space of surrendering and being open and seeing. It's a good place to be - the only place to be.

You should approach everything in life like, 'What is this?'

Something that's very important is to preserve the sense of surprise, the sense of discovery. The eye of the person you are talking to, your shadow on the ground. It's important not to get suffocated by all the things in life and lose that sense of surprise.

The opposite of speculation is to be present to the world simply as it is.

We are so distracted and focused on what's next, we can fail to see what is actually in front of us.

Look at what's in front of you, not what you've been told or what you expect or what you want to see.

To understand music, you must listen to it. But so long as you are thinking, “I am listening to this music,” you are not listening.

Surprising and interesting things happen to those who keep their eyes and their minds open and alert!

Anything is hard to find when you will not open your eyes

Well... ...That's what you always forget, isn't it? I mean, you forget to pay attention to what's happening. And that's the same as not being here and now.

We are all too much inclined, I think, to walk through life with our eyes shut. There are things all round us and right at our very feet that we have never seen, because we have never really looked.

I do think that there is an innocence to people who are searching for things. It's a beautiful thing when you leave yourself vulnerable to discover anything and everything.