“Teachers dread nothing so much as unusual characteristics in precocious boys during the initial stages of their adolescence. A certain streak of genius makes an ominous impression on them, for there exists a deep gulf between genius and the teaching profession. Anyone with a touch of genius seems to his teachers a freak from the very first. As far as teachers are concerned, they define young geniuses as those who are bad, disrespectful, smoke at fourteen, fall in love at fifteen, can be found at sixteen hanging out in bars, read forbidden books, write scandalous essays, occasionally stare down a teacher in class, are marked in the attendance book as rebels, and are budding candidates for room-arrest. A schoolmaster will prefer to have a couple of dumbheads in his class than a single genius, and if you regard it objectively, he is of course right. His task is not to produce extravagant intellects but good Latinists, arithmeticians and sober decent folk. The question of who suffers more acutely at the other's hands - the teacher at the boy's, or vice versa - who is more of a tyrant, more of a tormentor, and who profanes parts of the other's soul, student or teacher, is something you cannot examine without remembering your own youth in anger and shame. yet that s not what concerns us here. We have the consolation that among true geniuses the wounds almost always heal. As their personalities develop, they create their art in spite of school. Once dead, and enveloped by the comfortable nimbus of remoteness, they are paraded by the schoolmasters before other generations of students as showpieces and noble examples. Thus teh struggle between rule and spirit repeats itself year after year from school to school. The authorities go to infinite pains to nip the few profound or more valuable intellects in the bud. And time and again the ones who are detested by their teachers are frequently punished, the runaways and those expelled, are the ones who afterwards add to society's treasure. But some - and who knows how many? - waste away quiet obstinacy and finally go under.”
― Hermann Hesse, quote from Beneath the Wheel
“A soul that is ruined in the bud will frequently return to the springtime of its beginning and its promise-filled childhood, as though it could discover new hopes there and retie the broken threads of life. The shoots grow rapidly and eagerly, but it is only a sham life that will never be a genuine tree.”
― Hermann Hesse, quote from Beneath the Wheel
“When a tree is polled, it will sprout new shoots nearer its roots. A soul that is ruined in the bud will frequently return to the springtime of its beginnings and its promise-filled childhood, as though it could discover new hopes there and retie the broken threads of life. The shoots grow rapidly and eagerly, but it is only a sham life that will never be a genuine tree.”
― Hermann Hesse, quote from Beneath the Wheel
“It is wrong to say that schoolmasters lack heart and are dried-up, soulless pedants! No, by no means. When a child's talent which he has sought to kindle suddenly bursts forth, when the boy puts aside his wooden sword, slingshot, bow-and-arrow and other childish games, when he begins to forge ahead, when the seriousness of the work begins to transform the rough-neck into a delicate, serious and an almost ascetic creature, when his face takes on an intelligent, deeper and more purposeful expression - then a teacher's heart laughs with happiness and pride. It is his duty and responsibility to control the raw energies and desires of his charges and replace them with calmer, more moderate ideals. What would many happy citizens and trustworthy officials have become but unruly, stormy innovators and dreamers of useless dreams, if not for the effort of their schools? In young beings there is something wild, ungovernable, uncultured which first has to be tamed. It is like a dangerous flame that has to be controlled or it will destroy. Natural man is unpredictable, opaque, dangerous, like a torrent cascading out of uncharted mountains. At the start, his soul is a jungle without paths or order. And, like a jungle, it must first be cleared and its growth thwarted. Thus it is the school's task to subdue and control man with force and make him a useful member of society, to kindle those qualities in him whose development will bring him to triumphant completion.”
― Hermann Hesse, quote from Beneath the Wheel
“Like a wallflower he stayed in the background waiting for someone to fetch him, someone more courageous and stronger than himself to tear him away and force him into happiness.”
― Hermann Hesse, quote from Beneath the Wheel
“Every healthy person must have a goal in life and that life must have content.”
― Hermann Hesse, quote from Beneath the Wheel
“... and out of the awareness of sameness grew the desire for differentiation.”
― Hermann Hesse, quote from Beneath the Wheel
“It was all the same to him where he would end up; what mattered most was the fact he had finally escaped … and shown … that his will was stronger than mere commands and edicts.”
― Hermann Hesse, quote from Beneath the Wheel
“The teachers apparently regarded a dead student very differently from a living one.”
― Hermann Hesse, quote from Beneath the Wheel
“As far as teachers are concerned, they define young geniuses as those who are bad, disrespectful, smoke at fourteen, fall in love at fifteen, can be found at sixteen hanging out in bars, read forbidden books, write scandalous essays, occasionally stare down a teacher in class, are marked in the attendance book as rebels, and are budding candidates for room-arrest.”
― Hermann Hesse, quote from Beneath the Wheel
“He could have exchanged his name and address with any of his neighbours, and nothing would have been different.”
― Hermann Hesse, quote from Beneath the Wheel
“I had made my mind up to stay at the top of the class and [...] graduate at the head of it. […] that was my kind of ideal. I just didn't know any better.”
― Hermann Hesse, quote from Beneath the Wheel
“All this seemed a decorative newly painted picture behind clear new glass.”
― Hermann Hesse, quote from Beneath the Wheel
“What would many happy citizens and trustworthy officials have become but unruly, stormy innovators and dreamers of useless dreams, if not for the effort of their schools?”
― Hermann Hesse, quote from Beneath the Wheel
“the headmaster […] pledged that, provided he behaved himself, he would be duly sheltered and cared for by the state for the rest of his days. It did not occur to any of the boys, nor their fathers, that all this would perhaps not really be free.”
― Hermann Hesse, quote from Beneath the Wheel
“His small fragile ship had barely escaped a disaster; now it enters a region of new storms and uncharted depths through which even the best led ... cannot find a guide. He must find his own way and be his own saviour.”
― Hermann Hesse, quote from Beneath the Wheel
“I had made my mind up to stay at the top of the class and […] graduate at the head of it. […] that was my kind of ideal. I just didn't know any better.”
― Hermann Hesse, quote from Beneath the Wheel
“This one was so lively and talkative, she paid no attention to him or his shyness, so he withdrew his feelers awkwardly and a little offended crawled back into himself like a snail brushed by a cartwheel.”
― Hermann Hesse, quote from Beneath the Wheel
“everything I had so far experienced was mere chance … my life still lacked a deep individual meaning of its own”
― Hermann Hesse, quote from Beneath the Wheel
“there exists a deep gulf between genius and the teaching profession. Anyone with a touch of genius seems to his teachers a freak from the very first. As far as teachers are concerned, they define young geniuses as those who are bad, disrespectful, smoke at fourteen, fall in love at fifteen, can be found at sixteen hanging out in bars, read forbidden books, write scandalous essays, occasionally stare down a teacher in class, are marked in the attendance book as rebels, and are budding candidates for room-arrest. A school master will prefer to have a couple of dumbheads in class than a … genius. … His task is not to produce extravagant intellectuals but good Latinists, arimeticians and sober decent folk. … We have the consolation that among true geniuses the wounds always heal. … they create their art in spite of school. Once dead and enveloped by the comfortable nimbus of remoteness, they are paraded by the schoolmasters before other generations of students as showpieces and noble examples. … Time and again the ones who are detested by their teachers … are afterwards the ones who add to society's treasure.”
― Hermann Hesse, quote from Beneath the Wheel
“I had made my mind up to stay at the top of the class and … graduate at the head of it. … That was my kind of ideal. I just didn't know any better.”
― Hermann Hesse, quote from Beneath the Wheel
“Mathematics, as far as he was concerned, was a Sphinx charged with deceitful puzzles whose cold malicious gaze transfixed her victims, and he gave the monster a wide berth.”
― Hermann Hesse, quote from Beneath the Wheel
“there exists a deep gulf between genius and the teaching profession. Anyone with a touch of genius seems to his teachers a freak from the very first. As far as teachers are concerned, they define young geniuses as those who are bad, disrespectful, smoke at fourteen, fall in love at fifteen, can be found at sixteen hanging out in bars, read forbidden books, write scandalous essays, occasionally stare down a teacher in class, are marked in the attendance book as rebels, and are budding candidates for room-arrest. A school master will prefer to have a couple of dumbheads in class than a […] genius. […] His task is not to produce extravagant intellectuals but good Latinists, arimeticians and sober decent folk. […] We have the consolation that among true geniuses the wounds always heal. […] they create their art in spite of school. Once dead and enveloped by the comfortable nimbus of remoteness, they are paraded by the schoolmasters before other generations of students as showpieces and noble examples. […] [T]ime and again the ones who are detested by their teachers […] are afterwards the ones who add to society's treasure.”
― Hermann Hesse, quote from Beneath the Wheel
“His cumbersome mind clung to an obscure ideal, shared by many people of limited intellect and venerated with unthinking respect: to let a branch sprout from the main trunk, an extension of himself.”
― Hermann Hesse, quote from Beneath the Wheel
“Thus the struggle between rule and spirit repeats itself year after year from school to school. The authorities go to infinite pains to nip the few profound or more valuable intellects in the bud. And time and again the ones who are detested by their teachers are frequently punished, the runaways and those expelled, are the ones who afterwards add to society's treasure. But some - and who knows how many? - waste away quiet obstinacy and finally go under.”
― Hermann Hesse, quote from Beneath the Wheel
“und diese war so lebendig und so gesprächig und machte sich aus seiner Gegenwart und aus seiner Schüchternheit so wenig, daß er unbehilflich und ein wenig beleidigt die Fühler einzog und sich verkroch, wie eine vom Wagenrad gestreifte Wegschnecke.”
― Hermann Hesse, quote from Beneath the Wheel
“Wie ein schüchternes Mädchen blieb er sitzen und wartet, ob einer käme ihn zu holen, ein Stärkerer und Mutigerer als er, der ihn mitrisse und zum Glücklichsein zwänge.”
― Hermann Hesse, quote from Beneath the Wheel
“Ach nichts weiter. Und Sie und ich, wir haben vielleicht auch mancherlei an dem Buben versäumt, meinen Sie nicht?”
― Hermann Hesse, quote from Beneath the Wheel
“Auf diesem Platz hat schon mancher gedacht, hier wäre der Ort für ein tüchtiges Stück Leben und Freude, hier müßte etwas Lebendiges, Beglückendes wachsen können, hier müßten reife und gute Menschen ihre freudigen Gedanken denken und schöne und heitere Werke schaffen.”
― Hermann Hesse, quote from Beneath the Wheel
Hermann Hesse
Born place: in Calw, Württemberg, Germany
Born date July 2, 1877
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“The secret to living long is to have something to live for.”
― David Levithan, quote from Love Is the Higher Law
“Why doesn't he say something to her?
But I knew why. Because there's the creeping fear that these moments don't actually exist outside your own head. No eyes meet across a crowded room, no two people thing precisely the same thing, and if only one person actually has that moment, is it even really a moment at all?
We know this, so we say nothing. We avert our eyes, or pretend to be looking for change, we hope the other person will take the initiative, because we don't want to risk losing this feeling of excitement and possibilities and lust. It's too perfect. That little second of hope is worth something, possibly for ever, as we lie on out deathbeds, surrounded by our children, and our grandchildren and our great-grandchildren, and we can't help but quickly give on last selfish, dying thought to what could have happened if we'd actually said hello to that girl in the Uggs selling CDs outside Nando's seventy-four years earlier.”
― Danny Wallace, quote from Charlotte Street
“But if monsters could look like humans, and humans could look like monsters, how could anyone ever really be sure that the right people stood on the outside of all those cages?”
― Rachel Vincent, quote from Menagerie
“His lips ever so gently touched mine, and suddenly I felt everything stirring inside me grow wings, let loose, and fly.”
― Heather Anastasiu, quote from Glitch
“My mom says crying is just your body expelling all the bad stuff. Like a sneeze. Like your soul sneezing.”
― Jeff Garvin, quote from Symptoms of Being Human
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