Learn what is to be taken seriously and laugh at the rest.
- Hermann Hesse
Hermann Hesse’s quote — “Learn what is to be taken seriously and laugh at the rest.” — is a gentle but wise reminder about balance, perspective, and emotional clarity.
At its core, the quote is about discernment. Not everything in life deserves the same level of energy, worry, or intensity. Some things truly matter — our relationships, our values, our health, our purpose. These deserve our focus and seriousness. But much of what weighs us down is trivial: small inconveniences, petty conflicts, fleeting judgments, or imagined problems that never actually materialize.
Hesse invites us to separate the meaningful from the meaningless. When we fail to do that, life feels heavier than it needs to be. But when we learn — consciously, with practice — to take only the important things seriously, we free ourselves from unnecessary stress. We gain emotional resilience. We stop being pulled into every minor frustration or drama.
And what about the rest? Laugh at it.
Not out of dismissiveness, but out of understanding. Laughter is a form of release. It turns irritation into ease, mistakes into lessons, and awkward moments into stories. It helps us remember that imperfection is part of being human, and that not every stumble needs to become a crisis.
Hesse’s message is ultimately about living wisely:
Hold tight to what matters.
Hold lightly everything else.
And when in doubt, choose to smile, breathe, and let the small things go.
