Quotes from Hermann Hesse, Siddhartha

I felt knowledge and the unity of the world circulate in me like my own blood.

I have always thirsted for knowledge, I have always been full of questions.

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

They both listened silently to the water, which to them was not just water, but the voice of life, the voice of Being, the voice of perpetual Becoming.

Never is a man wholly a saint or a sinner.

Be aware of too much wisdom!

Alas, Siddhartha, I see you suffering, but you're suffering a pain at which one would like to laugh, at which you'll soon laugh for yourself.

Both the thoughts and the senses were pretty things, the ultimate meaning was hidden behind both of them... from both the secret voices of the innermost truth had to be attentively perceived.

One must find the source within one's own Self, one must possess it. Everything else was seeking -- a detour, an error.

I will no longer mutilate and destroy myself in order to find a secret behind the ruins.

This is how it is when Siddhartha has a goal... His goal attracts him, because he doesn't let anything enter his soul which might oppose the goal... This is what fools call magic and of which they think it would be effected by means of the daemons. Nothing is effected by daemons, there are no daemons. Everyone can perform magic, everyone can reach his goals, if he is able to think, if he is able to wait, if he is able to fast.

One can pass on knowledge but not wisdom. One can find wisdom, one can live it, one can be supported by it, one can work wonders with it, but one cannot speak it or teach it.

He sat thus, lost in meditation, thinking Om, his soul as the arrow directed at Brahman.

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

Ich werde stehen und warten.Ich werde müde werden.Ich werde nicht einschlafen.Ich werde sterben.

Dreams and restless thoughts came flowing to him from the river, from the twinkling stars at night, from the sun's melting rays. Dreams and a restlessness of the soul came to him.