“They knew a tremendous number of things — But was it worthwhile knowing all these things if they did not know the one important thing, the only important thing?”

— Hermann Hesse

Source: Siddhartha (1922), p. 21

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "They knew a tremendous number of things — But was it worthwhile knowing all these things if they did not know the one i…" by Hermann Hesse?

Hermann Hesse 168

German writer 1877–1962

Related quotes

“The important thing is to know how to take all things quietly.”

Michael Faraday (1791–1867) English scientist

As quoted in Treasury of the Christian Faith : An Encyclopedic Handbook of the Range and Witness of Christianity (1949) by Stanley Irving Stuber and Thomas Curtis Clark, p. 807

“The most important thing about a person is always the thing you don't know.”

Barbara Kingsolver book The Lacuna

Source: The Lacuna

“Next to doing the right thing, the most important thing is to let people know you are doing the right thing.”

John D. Rockefeller (1839–1937) American business magnate and philanthropist

As quoted in The Forbes Book of Business Quotations (2007) edited by Ted Goodman, p. 175

“We must act on what we know. I take as my guide the hope of a saint: In crucial things, unity; in important things, diversity; in all things, generosity.”

George H. W. Bush (1924–2018) American politician, 41st President of the United States

Inaugural Address (1989)

“He knew that soon, perhaps even today, something important was going to happen. Whether good or bad he did not know, but he darkly suspected. And with reason: there are few good things that may unexpectedly happen to a man, things, that is, of lasting importance. Disaster can strike from innumerable directions, in amazingly diverse ways.”

Fredric Brown (1906–1972) American novelist, short story author

Come and Go Mad (p. 291)
Short fiction, From These Ashes (2000)

“The important thing is how we know, not what or how much.”

John Lancaster Spalding (1840–1916) Catholic bishop

Source: Aphorisms and Reflections (1901), p. 22

“The important thing is that Clyff Still – you know his work?”

Jackson Pollock (1912–1956) American artist

and Rothko, and I – we've changed the nature of painting.. .I don't mean there aren't any other good painters. Bill [ Willem the Kooning ] is a good painter, but he's a 'French' painter [Pollock meant: a French-abstract style]. I told him so, the last time I saw him after his last show,. ..all those pictures in his last show start with an image. You can see it even though he's covered it up, or tried to.. ..Style – that's the French part of it. He has to cover it up with style.. [answering Seldon Rodman's question]
In an interview (1956); published in Conversations with Artists, by Seldon Rodman, New York, Capricorn Books, 1961, pp. 84-85
1950's