If what matters in a person's existence is to accept the inevitable consciously, to taste the good and bad to the full and to make for oneself a more individual, unaccidental and inward destiny alongside one's external fate, then my life has been neither empty nor worthless.

Wenn es in einem Menschenleben darauf ankommt, das Unabwendbare mit Bewußtsein hinzunehmen, das Gute und Üble recht auszukosten und sich neben dem äußeren ein inneres, eigentlicheres, nicht zufälliges Schicksal zu erobern, so war mein Leben nicht arm und nicht schlecht.

Hermann Hesse

Gertrude

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More information about this quote

Topic

Living intentionally Purpose of life Personal growth Authenticity

Author

Hermann Hesse

Source

Gertrude

Medium

Novel

Language

German

Time

1910 1910s 20th century

Occupation

Nobel laureate Writer

From

Switzerland Europe

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Hesse, Herman. Getrud [Gertrude]. Albert Langen, 1910.

Current Citation

Hesse, Herman. Gertrude, translated by Hilda Rosner. Picador, 2005.

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Related Quotes

Below are one or more quotes that share at least one tag with the quote at the top of the page

Another quote by Hermann Hesse

Knowledge can be communicated but not wisdom.

Hermann Hesse

Siddhartha

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More information about this quote
Topic
Knowledge Wisdom
Speaker
Siddhartha

Author

Hermann Hesse
Source
Siddhartha
Language
German
Time
1922 1920s 20th century
Authentication Score 2
Original Citation

Hesse, Hermann. Siddhartha: Eine Indische Dichtung [Siddhartha: An Indian Poetry]. S. Fischer Verlag, 1922.

Current Citation

Hesse, Hermann. Siddhartha, translated by Joachim Neugroschel. Penguin Classics, 2002.

Another quote from the 1910s

God at bottom is nothing but an exalted father.

Sigmund Freud

Totem and Taboo

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More information about this quote
Topic
Nature of God God

Author

Sigmund Freud
Source
Totem and Taboo
Genre
Sociology
Language
German
Time
1913 1910s 20th century
Authentication Score 2
Citation

Freud, Sigmund. Totem und Tabu Einige Übereinstimmungen im Seelenleben der Wilden und der Neurotiker [Totem and Taboo Some Similarities in the Soul Life of the Wild and the Neurotic]. Beacon Press, 1913, ch. 4, sect. 6. Originally published in Imago, c. 1912.

Another quote about Authenticity

This above all: to thine own self be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man.

William Shakespeare

Hamlet

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More information about this quote
Topic
Being true to oneself Authenticity Personal integrity
Speaker
Lord Polonius

Author

William Shakespeare
Source
Hamlet
Medium
Play
Genre
Tragedy (play)
Statement Type
Advice
Language
English
Time
1616 1610s 17th century
Era
European Renaissance
Authentication Score 2
Original Citation

Shakespeare, William. "Hamlet." Mr. William Shakespeare's Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies. London: Edward Blount and William and Isaac Jaggard, 1623, act 1, sc. 3.

Current Citation

Shakespeare, William. "Hamlet." The Norton Shakespeare, edited by Stephen Greenblatt, et al., 3rd ed., W. W. Norton & Company, 2015, act 3, sc. 4.

Another quote originally in German

Men have gained control over the forces of nature to such an extent that with their help they could have no difficulty in exterminating one another to the last man. They know this, and hence comes a large part of their current unrest, their unhappiness and their mood of anxiety.

Sigmund Freud

Civilization and Its Discontents

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More information about this quote
Topic
Downsides of technology

Author

Sigmund Freud
Source
Civilization and Its Discontents
Genre
Philosophical literature
Language
German
Time
1930 1930s 20th century
Authentication Score 3
Original Citation

Freud, Sigmund. Das Unbehagen in der Kultur [The Discomfort in Culture]. Internationaler Psychoanalytischer Verlag Wien, 1930, pt. 8.

Current Citation

Freud, Sigmund. Civilization and Its Discontents, translated by James Strachey. W. W. Norton & Company, 2021, pt. 8.