Siddhartha

by Hermann Hesse

Everything was a lie, everything stank, everything stank of lies, everything feigned meaning and happiness and beauty, and yet everything was decaying while nobody acknowledged the fact. The world tested bitter; life was agony.

love can be obtained by begging, buying, receiving it as a gift, or finding it in the street, but it cannot be stolen.

Everyone can perform magic; everyone can reach his goals, if he is able to think, to wait, and to fast.”

He had given them up for the most wretched things, for that which fades most quickly: sensual lust, a life of luxury, and riches!

Nothing was and nothing will be: everything is, and everything is present and has existence.”

wisdom cannot be passed on. Wisdom that a wise man attempts to pass on to someone always sounds like foolishness.”

the opposite of every truth is just as true! That is to say, any truth can only be expressed and put into words when it is one-sided. Everything that can be thought with the mind and said with words is one-sided, it’s all just the half of it, lacking completeness, roundness, or unity. When