Wenn wir einen Menschen hassen, so hassen wir in seinem Bild etwas, was in uns selber sitzt. Was nicht in uns selber ist, das regt uns nicht auf.
• Translation: 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." - Meaning and context.">
p. 182

Wenn wir einen Menschen hassen, so hassen wir in seinem Bild etwas, was in uns selber sitzt. Was nicht in uns selber ist, das regt uns nicht auf.
• Translation: 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.

— Hermann Hesse

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "Wenn wir einen Menschen hassen, so hassen wir in seinem Bild etwas, was in uns selber sitzt. Was nicht in uns selber ist, das regt uns nicht auf.
• Translation: 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." in the context of "p. 182" to mean that wisdom is timeless.

Source: Wikiquote: "Hermann Hesse" (Quotes, Demian (1919): Demian: The Story of Emil Sinclair's Youth (1919), first published under the pseudonym "Emil Sinclair" ) The 'What it means' explanation text was generated by Google Gemini Flash (accessed January 18, 2026). https://gemini.google.com/app
Hermann Hesse

About Hermann Hesse

Hermann Karl Hesse (2 July 1877 – 9 August 1962) was a German-Swiss poet, novelist, and painter. In 1946, he received the Nobel Prize in Literature. His most famous works include Steppenwolf, Siddhartha, and The Glass Bead Game (also known as Magister Ludi) all of which explore an individual's search for spirituality.