Siddhartha

by Herman Hesse
Germany
2 Jul 1877 // 9 Aug 1962
Writer

Quotes

<< Prev Next >>

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.

Siddhartha
What is meditation?... It is fleeing from the self, it is a short escape of the agony of being a self, it is a short numbing of the senses against the pain and the pointlessness of life. The same escape, the same short numbing is what the driver of an ox-cart finds in the inn, drinking a few bowls of rice wine or fermented coconut-milk.

Siddhartha
Writing is good, thinking is better. Cleverness is good, patience is better.

Siddhartha
The world, my friend Govinda, is not imperfect or confined at a point somewhere along a gradual pathway toward perfection. No, it is perfect at every moment.

Siddhartha
Siddhartha has one single goal - to become empty, to become empty of thirst, desire, dreams, pleasure and sorrow-to let the Self die. No longer to be Self, to experience the peace of an emptied heart, to experience pure thought - that was his goal.

Siddhartha
Love can be begged, bought, or received as a gift, one can find it in the street, but one cannot steal it.

Siddhartha
Let me say no more. Words do no justice to the hidden meaning. Everything immediately becomes slightly different when it is expressed in words, a little bit distorted, a little foolish... It is perfectly fine with me that what for one man is precious wisdom for another sounds like foolery.

Siddhartha
Seeking means: to have a goal; but finding means: to be free, to be receptive, to have no goal. You, O worthy one, are perhaps indeed a seeker, for in striving towards your goal, you do not see many things that are under your nose.

Siddhartha
Not in his speech, not in his thoughts, I see his greatness, only in his actions, in his life.

Siddhartha
Opinions mean nothing; they may be beautiful or ugly, clever or foolish, anyone can embrace or reject them.

Siddhartha
<< Prev Next >>
Search
On Amazon

Siddhartha

Herman Hesse

 

On Anger: "For every minute you remain angry, you give up sixty seconds of peace of mind."
Essays
On Destiny: "Our destiny exercises its influence over us even when, as yet, we have not learned its nature: it is our future that lays down the law of our today."
Human, All Too Human
On Friendship: "A crowd is not company; and faces are but a gallery of pictures; and talk but a tinkling cymbal, where there is no love."
Essays