"When I have neither pleasure nor pain and have been breathing for a while the lukewarm insipid air of these so called good and tolerable days, I feel so bad in my childish soul that I smash my moldering lyre of thanksgiving in the face of the slumbering god of contentment and would rather feel the very devil burn in me than this warmth of a well-heated room. A wild longing for strong emotions and sensations seethes in me, a rage against this toneless, flat, normal and sterile life. I have a mad impulse to smash something, a warehouse, perhaps, or a cathedral, or myself, to commit outrages, to pull off the wigs of a few revered idols..."

Emotion Passion Boredom

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About Hermann Hesse

Hermann Hesse was a German-born writer and Nobel laureate known for works such as Siddhartha, Steppenwolf, and The Glass Bead Game. His writing often explores self-discovery, spirituality, and the tension between individuality and society. He received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1946.

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