Nur das Denken, das wir leben, hat einen Wert. Seite 74

Good book with an important message. Easy to read, easy symbolism— but a tat bit boring.

Er hatte geliebt und dabei sich selbst gefunden. Die meisten aber lieben, um sich dabei selbst zu verlieren. - S. 176

“If you hate a person, you hate something in him that is part of yourself. What isn't part of ourselves doesn't disturb us.” “I have been and still am a seeker, but I have ceased to question stars and books; I have begun to listen to the teaching my blood whispers to me.” “I live in my dreams — that's what you sense. Other people live in dreams, but not in their own. That's the difference.” “Good that you ask -- you should always ask, always have do.” „At that time I found a peculiar refuge—by "accident," as people say. But there are no such accidents. When someone who badly needs something finds it, it isn't an accident that brings it his way, but he himself, his own desire and necessity lead him to it.“

Demian is full of symbolism and wisdom with its main theme being, as so many of Hesse's books, an inner conflict that causes him great turmoil. The whole story deals with Sinclair's attempt to reconcile the different forces within him that seem to pull him into opposite directions. He starts out with a very rudimentary understanding of morality, taking it for granted that certain things are good and others are bad. The ability to distinguish between the two borrowed from older generations. As he grows older, he seems to realize there is no one-size-fits-all and that borrowed knowledge, that is not fully lived, is none at all. Sinclair goes on looking for a 'Führer', that can show him the one true way. Someone who will be able to untie the knot within him and make him realize his true persona. There are few people who take up that role for a while, but each of them can only point him in certain directions. Every single one of us walks a different path, with its own destiny. And so every one of us has to find it all by themselves. Just as Sinclair does.<br/><br/>This story should encourage us to stay strong in the face of despair. The good and the bad, the beauty and the ugly, the pleasant and the painful, is all part of who we are. We shouldn't prefer one over the other, but embrace the full spectrum of our experiential lives. And when we do so fully, we'll be able to resolve our inner conflicts.