Hermann Hesse

But he, Siddhartha, was not a source of joy for himself, he found no delight in himself.

The life of everyone is a way to himself, the search for a road, the indication of a path.

I saw at the same time that the root of his pessimism was not world-contempt but self-contempt; for however mercilessly he might annihilate institutions and persons in his talk he never spared himself.

Then his father realized that even now Siddhartha no longer dwelt with him in his home, that he had already left him.

Two worlds passed there one through the other. From two poles came forth day and night.

Human life is reduced to real suffering, to hell, only when two ages, two cultures and religions overlap.

A goal stood before Siddhartha, a single goal: to become empty, empty of thirst, empty of wishing, empty of dreams, empty of joy and sorrow.

Alas, I know that today: nothing in the world is so distasteful to man as to go the way which leads him to himself!

Solitude is independence. It had been my wish and with the years I had attained it.

I want to learn from myself, want to be my student, want to get to know myself, the secret of Siddhartha.

Only the thought that we live through in experience has any value.

Either a man goes and hangs himself, and then he hangs sure enough, and he’ll have his reasons for it, or else he goes on living and then he has only living to bother himself with.

I have awakened, I have indeed awakened and have not been born before this very day.

You should be able to creep right into yourself, like a tortoise.

We immortals do not like things to be taken seriously. We like joking.

Nobody was thus alone as he was.

At least it was feeling; flowers were flaring up, emotion was quivering therein.

It is certain in any case that life is quite disarmed by the gift to live so entirely in the present, to treasure with such eager care every flower by the wayside and the light that plays on every passing moment.

I can think. I can wait. I can fast.

When a person is in need of something, and the necessary happens, this is not due to chance but to himself; his own desire leads him compellingly to the object of which he stands in need.