People know, or dimly feel, that if thinking is not kept pure and keen, and if respect for the world of mind is no longer operative, ships and automobiles will soon cease to run right, the engineer's slide rule and the computations of banks and stock exchanges will forfeit validity and authority, and chaos will ensue.
Interpretation
This quote emphasizes the importance of maintaining clarity and respect for the mind in order to ensure order in the physical world.
Hermann Hesse suggests that a decline in the purity and sharpness of our thinking, along with a lack of respect for intellectual pursuits, can lead to practical breakdowns in the world around us. He warns that if we neglect the importance of mental clarity and fail to engage thoughtfully with our environment, we risk chaos in societal structures such as engineering, finance, and technology.
In practice
In a speech on mental clarity and decision-making, one might quote Hesse to emphasize the importance of thoughtful reflection.
I shall no longer be instructed by the Yoga Veda or the Aharva Veda, or the ascetics, or any other doctrine whatsoever. I shall learn from myself, be a pupil of myself; I shall get to know myself, the mystery of Siddhartha." He looked around as if he were seeing the world for the first time.
That is where my dearest and brightest dreams have ranged — to hear for the duration of a heartbeat the universe and the totality of life in its mysterious, innate harmony.
I, also, would like to look and smile, sit and walk like that, so free, so worthy, so restrained, so candid, so childlike and mysterious. A man only looks and walks like that when he has conquered his Self. I also will conquer my Self.
You're quite right there," he said. "I have practiced abstinence myself for years, and had my time of fasting, too, but now I find myself once more beneath the sign of Aquarius, a dark and humid constellation.
I call that man awake who, with conscious knowledge and understanding, can perceive the deep unreasoning powers in his soul, his whole innermost strength, desire and weakness, and knows how to reckon with himself.
Despair is the result of each earnest attempt to go through life with virtue, justice and understanding, and to fulfill their requirements. Children live on one side of despair, the awakened on the other side.
Never bear more than one trouble at a time. Some people bear three kinds - all they have had, all they have now, and all they expect to have.
The past will not tell us what we ought to do, but... what we ought to avoid.
It is remarkable that when great discoveries are effected, their simplicity always seems to detract from their originality: on these occasions we are reminded of the egg of Columbus!
Life is short. Time is fleeting. Realize the Self. Purity of the heart is the gateway to God. Aspire. Renounce. Meditate. Be good; do good. Be kind; be compassionate. Inquire, know Thyself.
A perverse temper and fretful disposition will make any state of life whatsoever unhappy.
You have to grow from the inside out. None can teach you, none can make you spiritual. There is no other teacher but your own soul.
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