“We take no pleasure in permitted joys.
But what's forbidden is more keenly sought.”
Quod licet ingratum est. Quod non licet acrius urit.
Book II; xix, 3
Amores (Love Affairs)
“Each of us has to find out for himself what is permitted and what is forbidden — forbidden for him. It's possible for one never to transgress a single law and still be a bastard. And vice versa.”
— Hermann Hesse, book Demian
Source: Demian (1919), p. 147
Context: Certainly you shouldn't go kill somebody or rape a girl, no! But you haven't reached the point where you can understand the actual meaning of "permitted" and "forbidden." You've only sensed part of the truth. You will feel the other part, too, you can depend on it. For instance, for about a year you have had to struggle with a drive that is stronger than any other and which is considered "forbidden." The Greeks and many other peoples, on the other hand, elevated this drive, made it divine and celebrated it in great feasts. What is forbidden, in other words, is not something eternal; it can change. Anyone can sleep with a woman as soon as he's been to a pastor with her and has married her, yet other races do it differently, even nowadays. Each of us has to find out for himself what is permitted and what is forbidden — forbidden for him. It's possible for one never to transgress a single law and still be a bastard. And vice versa. Actually it's only a question of convenience. Those who are too lazy and comfortable to think for themselves and be their own judges obey the laws. Others sense their own laws within them; things are forbidden to them that every honorable man will do any day in the year and other things are allowed to them that are generally despised. Each person must stand on his own feet.
Help us to complete the source, original and additional information
Do you have more details about the quote "Each of us has to find out for himself what is permitted and what is forbidden — forbidden for him. It's possible for o…" by Hermann Hesse?
Hermann Hesse168
German writer 1877–1962Related quotes
“Whatever is not forbidden is permitted.”
Friedrich Schiller Wallenstein
Prologue
Wallenstein (1798), Prologue - Wallensteins Lager (Wallenstein's Camp)
“We are ever striving after what is forbidden, and coveting what is denied us.”
Nitimur in vetitum semper, cupimusque negata.
Variant translation: We hunt for things unlawful with swift feet, / As if forbidden joys were only sweet.
Book III; iv, 17
Amores (Love Affairs)
Diane Arbus (1923–1971) American photographer and author
Uwais al-Qarani (594–657) Muslim saint
Quoted in The Children Around the Table of Allah, by Shaykh Muhammad Sa'id al-Jamal ar-Rifa'i https://suficenter.org/product/children-around-table-allah/, Excerpt online http://www.sunnah.org/history/Uwais_al_Qarani.htm(2000)
“The Jews are a peculiar people: things permitted to other nations are forbidden to the Jews.”
Eric Hoffer (1898–1983) American philosopher
Israel's Peculiar Position (1968)
Context: The Jews are a peculiar people: things permitted to other nations are forbidden to the Jews. Other nations drive out thousands, even millions of people and there is no refugee problem. Russia did it, Poland and Czechoslovakia did it, Turkey threw out a million Greeks, and Algeria a million Frenchman. Indonesia threw out heaven knows how many Chinese — and no one says a word about refugees.
But in the case of Israel the displaced Arabs have become eternal refugees. Everyone insists that Israel must take back every single Arab.
Arnold J. Toynbee calls the displacement of the Arabs an atrocity greater than any committed by the Nazis. Other nations when victorious on the battlefield dictate peace terms. But when Israel is victorious it must sue for peace.
“Each of us is someone's forbidden sin. It would just be enough to meet up.”
Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer
Original: Ognuno di noi è il peccato proibito di qualcuno. Basterebbe solo incontrarsi.
Source: prevale.net
Muammar Gaddafi (1942–2011) Libyan revolutionary, politician and political theorist
Remarks to captors minutes before death, quoted in msnbc.com (2011 October 21) "Even stashed in a meat locker, Gadhafi divides Libya" http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/44986347/ns/today-today_news/t/battle-over-body-delays-gadhafis-burial/
Czeslaw Milosz (1911–2004) Polish, poet, diplomat, prosaist, writer, and translator
"A Task"
Context: We were permitted to shriek in the tongue of dwarfs and demons
But pure and generous words were forbidden
Under so stiff a penalty that whoever dared to pronounce one
Considered himself as a lost man.