“How mysterious this life was, how deep and muddy its waters ran, yet how clear and noble what emerged from them.”
Narcissus and Goldmund (1930)
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Hermann Hesse 168
German writer 1877–1962Related quotes
“How terrible this darkness was, how bewildering, and yet mysteriously beautiful!”
Source: The Burning Secret and other stories
“They muddy the water, to make it seem deep.”
Part 3, Chapter 19 (p. 226)
Nifft the Lean (1982)
“This is how deep truths are winnowed from deep nonsense.”
Source: The Demon-Haunted World : Science as a Candle in the Dark (1995), Ch. 17 : The Marriage of Skepticism and Wonder
Context: At the heart of science is an essential balance between two seemingly contradictory attitudes - an openness to new ideas, no matter how bizarre or counterintuitive, and the most ruthlessly skeptical scrutiny of all ideas, old and new. This is how deep truths are winnowed from deep nonsense. The collective enterprise of creative thinking and skeptical thinking, working together, keeps the field on track. Those two seemingly contradictory attitudes are, though, in some tension.
“Men are adorable, but mysterious... How can he be so average, yet so full of confidence?”
Source: "Stand-up is booming in China, with women centre-stage" in The Economist https://www.economist.com/china/2021/01/07/stand-up-is-booming-in-china-with-women-centre-stage (7 January 2021)
“And love runs down like this
Water, love runs down.
How slow life is,
How violent hope is.”
L'amour s'en va comme cette eau courante
L'amour s'en va
Comme la vie est lente
Et comme l'Espérance est violente
"Le Pont Mirabeau" (Mirabeau Bridge), line 13; translation by William Meredith, from Francis Steegmuller Apollinaire: Poet Among the Painters (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1973) p. 193.
Alcools (1912)