'The Law of Youth'

"I have had to experience so much stupidity, so many vices, so much error, so much nausea, disillusionment, and sorrow, just in order to become a child again and begin anew. I had to experience despair, I had to sink to the greatest mental depths, to thoughts of suicide, in order to experience grace.

had to sin in order to live again. Where else might my path have led me? It is good, I believe, that I experienced it all. I had to descend into the depths of sensuality, into the world of power and greed, I had to become a merchant, a gambler, a drinker, and a lover, until I finally bore the burden of my own ego and learned to let it fall away."

— hesse