Siddhartha

A short, sweet book that tells the story of a man’s self discovery via the route of living his own life, not being taught. He rejects being taught in favour of learning the lessons on his own, making the mistakes himself, and coming to the conclusions through his own reasoning.

Favourite Quotes

• “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.”
• “Suffering was life, full of suffering was the world,”
• “This is why I am continuing my travels—not to seek other, better teachings, for I know there are none, but to depart from all teachings and all teachers and to reach my goal by myself or to die.”
• “is not my place to judge another person’s life. Only for myself, for myself alone, I must decide, I must chose,”
• ““It was the self, the purpose and essence of which I sought to learn. It was the self, I wanted to free myself from, which I sought to overcome.”
• “I want to learn from myself, want to be my student, want to get to know myself, the secret of Siddhartha.””
• “he had to start his life anew and start again at the very beginning.”
• “Now, he was nothing but Siddhartha, the awoken one, nothing else was left.”
• “When you throw a rock into the water, it will speed on the fastest course to the bottom of the water. This is how it is when Siddhartha has a goal, a resolution. Siddhartha does nothing, he waits, he thinks, he fasts, but he passes through the things of the world like a rock through water, without doing anything, without stirring; he is drawn, he lets himself fall. His goal attracts him, because he doesn’t let anything enter his soul which might oppose the goal.”
• ““Surely,” Siddhartha laughed, “surely I have travelled for my amusement. For what else? I have gotten to know people and places, I have received kindness and trust, I have found friendship.”
• “Slowly the disease of the soul, which rich people have, grabbed hold of him.”
• “He had been captured by the world, by lust, covetousness, sloth, and finally also by that vice which he had used to despise and mock the most as the most foolish one of all vices: greed.”
• “thus this sleepless man wished to free himself of these pleasures, these habits and all of this pointless life and himself,”
• ““It is good,” he thought, “to get a taste of everything for oneself, which one needs to know.”
• “He had died, a new Siddhartha had woken up from the sleep.”
• “Most of all, he learned from it to listen, to pay close attention with a quiet heart, with a waiting, opened soul, without passion, without a wish, without judgement, without an opinion.” – The river
• “Which father, which teacher had been able to protect him from living his life for himself, from soiling himself with life, from burdening himself with guilt, from drinking the bitter drink for himself, from finding his path for himself?”
• “But even if you would die ten times for him, you would not be able to take the slightest part of his destiny upon yourself.”” – Each must live their own life
• “He’s doing what you’ve failed to do yourself. He’s taking care of himself, he’s taking his course.” – Nobody else can take your course for you
• “he understood them, he understood and shared their life,”
• “what wisdom actually was, what the goal of his long search was. It was nothing but a readiness of the soul, an ability, a secret art, to think every moment, while living his life, the thought of oneness, to be able to feel and inhale the oneness.”
• “In this hour, Siddhartha stopped fighting his fate, stopped suffering. On his face flourished the cheerfulness of a knowledge, which is no longer opposed by any will, which knows perfection, which is in agreement with the flow of events, with the current of life, full of sympathy for the pain of others, full of sympathy for the pleasure of others, devoted to the flow, belonging to the oneness.”
• “Perhaps that you’re searching far too much? That in all that searching, you don’t find the time for finding?””
• “That in all that searching, you don’t find the time for finding?””
• “started to distrust teachers and teachings and to turn my back to them. I have stuck with this.”
• “Knowledge can be conveyed, but not wisdom. It can be found, it can be lived, it is possible to be carried by it, miracles can be performed with it, but it cannot be expressed in words and taught.”
• “To thoroughly understand the world, to explain it, to despise it, may be the thing great thinkers do. But I’m only interested in being able to love the world, not to despise it, not to hate it and me, to be able to look upon it and me and all beings with love and admiration and great respect.””