Oh, love isn’t there to make us happy. I believe it exists to show us how much we can endure.
Often it is the most deserving people who cannot help loving those who destroy them.
Love must not entreat,’ she added, ‘or demand. Love must have the strength to become certain within itself. Then it ceases merely to be attracted and begins to attract.
When you like someone, you like them in spite of their faults. When you love someone, you love them with their faults.
Perhaps people like us cannot love. Ordinary people can – that is their secret.
I believe that I am not responsible for the meaningfulness or meaninglessness of life, but that I am responsible for what I do with the life I’ve got.
I began to understand that suffering and disappointments and melancholy are there not to vex us or cheapen us or deprive us of our dignity but to mature and transfigure us.
You’ve never lived what you are thinking, and that isn’t good. Only the ideas we actually live are of any value.
You are willing to die, you coward, but not to live.
In eternity there is no time, only an instant long enough for a joke.
I will no longer mutilate and destroy myself in order to find a secret behind the ruins.
A thousand times I was ready to regret and take back my rash statement – yet it had been the truth.
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 call that man awake who, with conscious knowledge and understanding, can perceive the deep unreasoning powers in his soul, his whole innermost strength, desire and weakness, and knows how to reckon with himself.
He brooded on how close destruction always was to all creatures, animals as well as humans, and he realized that there is nothing we can predict or know for certain in this world except death.
I do want more. I am not content with being happy. I was not made for it. It is not my destiny. My destiny is the opposite.
Ich werde stehen und warten.Ich werde müde werden.Ich werde nicht einschlafen.Ich werde sterben.
For the first time in my life I tasted death, and death tasted bitter, for death is birth, is fear and dread of some terrible renewal.
Words do not express thoughts very well. They always become a little different immediately after they are expressed, a little distorted, a little foolish.
I have been and still am a seeker, but I have ceased to question stars and books; I have begun to listen to the teaching my blood whispers to me.
I called the world of phenomena an illusion, I called my eyes and my tongue and accident, valueless phenomena. No, that is all over; I have awakened, I have really awakened and have just been born today.
I have always thirsted for knowledge, I have always been full of questions.
I felt knowledge and the unity of the world circulate in me like my own blood.
Was then not all sorrow in time, all self-torment and fear in time? Were not all difficulties and evil in the world conquered as soon as one conquered time, as soon as one dispelled time?
Without words, without writing and without books there would be no history, there could be no concept of humanity.
Every true reader could, even if not one new book were published, spend decades and centuries studying on, fighting on, continuing to rejoice in the treasure of those already at hand.
…your tranquil yes to the changing over into the formless void of the unlimited.
Everyone can perform magic, everyone can reach his goals, ifhe is able to think, if he is able to wait, if he is able to fast.
At one time I had given much thought to why men were so very rarely capable of living for an ideal. Now I saw that many, no, all men were capable of dying for one.
The world had been divided into two parts that sought to annihilate each other because they both desired the same thing, namely the liberation of the oppressed, the elimination of violence, and the establishment of permanent peace.
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.
If a beautiful thing were to remain beautiful for all eternity, I’d be glad, but all the same I’d look at it with a colder eye. I’d say to myself: You can look at it any time, it doesn’t have to be today.
…and the vessel was not full, his intellect was not satisfied, his soul was not at peace, his heart was not still.
I had considered myself some kind of genius and had considerably underestimated the toils and difficulties encountered along the path to an art.
. . . nobody will obtain salvation by means of teachings!
His way had therefore come full circle, or rather had taken the form of an ellipse or a spiral, following as ever no straight unbroken line, for the rectilinear belongs only to Geometry and not to Nature and Life.
Within yourself is a stillness and a sanctuary to which you can retreat at any time and be yourself.
To hear for the duration of a heartbeat the universe and the totality of life in its mysterious, innate harmony.
Our mind is capable of passing beyond the dividing line we have drawn for it. Beyond the pairs of opposites of which the world consists, other, new insights begin.
The mind cannot live in nature, only against nature, only as its counterpart.
You show the world as a complete, unbroken chain, an eternal chain, linked together by cause and effect.
Like animals we call to each other,” was the thought that came to him as he remembered the hour of love in the afternoon.
There is no reality except the one contained within us. That is why so many people live such an unreal life. They take the images outside of them for reality and never allow the world within to assert itself.
Each of us has to find out for himself what is permitted and what is forbidden.. forbidden for him. It’s possible for one never to transgress a single law and still be a bastard. And vice versa.
There’s no reality except the one contained within us. That’s why so many people live an unreal life. They take images outside them for reality and never allow the world within them to assert itself.
For one scant day he had loved himself, felt himself to be unified and whole, not split into hostile parts; he had loved himself and the world and God in himself, and everywhere he went he had met nothing but love, approval, and joy.
Despair is the result of each earnest attempt to go through life with virtue, justice and understanding, and to fulfill their requirements. Children live on one side of despair, the awakened on the other side.
But if you were to die ten times for him, you would not alter his destiny in the slightest
The world was beautiful when looked at in this way—without any seeking, so simple, so childlike.
Granted, there is always much that is hidden, and we must not forget that the writing of history – however dryly it is done and however sincere the desire for objectivity – remains literature. History’s third dimension is always fiction
Nothing in the world is more distasteful to a man than to follow the path that leads to himself.
I have always believed, and I still believe, that whatever good or bad fortune may come our way we can always give it meaning and transform it into something of value.
He sat thus, lost in meditation, thinking Om, his soul as the arrow directed at Brahman.
To be a bear and love a she-bear, that would not be such a bad life, and would, at least, be a far better one than to keep his reason and his thoughts, with all the rest that made him human, and yet live on alone, unloved, in sadness.
What for me is bliss and life and ecstasy and exaltation, the world in general seeks at most in imagination; in life it finds it absurd.
The sacred sense of beyond, of timelessness, of a world which had an eternal value and the substance of which was divine had been given back to me today by this friend of mine who taught me dancing.
Whither will my path yet lead me? This path is stupid, it goes in spirals, perhaps in circles, but whichever way it goes, I will follow it.
It is easier to bear the worries of wandering than to find peace in your hometown, where only the sage can live in a happy house surrounded by trite troubles and daily distractions.
It is not for me to judge another man’s life. I must judge, I must choose, I must spurn, purely for myself. For myself, alone.
Gaze into the fire, into the clouds, and as soon as the inner voices begin to speak… surrender to them. Don’t ask first whether it’s permitted, or would please your teachers or father or some god. You will ruin yourself if you do that.
I wanted only to live in accord with the promptings which came from my true self. Why was that so very difficult?
Home is neither here nor there. Home is within you, or home is nowhere at all.
Here in this endless and gleaming wildernessI was removed farther than ever from the world of men –And I never saw so close and so clearlyThe image in the mirror of my own soul.
Searching means having a goal, but finding means being free, being open, having no goal … because in striving for your goal there are many things you do not see, which are directly in front of your eyes.
To deal with history [life] means to abandon one’s self to chaos but to retain a belief in the ordination and the meaning. It is a very serious task.
No permanence is ours; we are a waveThat flows to fit whatever form it finds:Through night or day, cathedral or the caveWe pass forever, craving form that binds.
Fate and character are different names for the same idea.
Never again!” commanded his will. “Again! Tomorrow!” begged his heart.
Not in his speech, not in his thoughts, I see his greatness, only in his actions, in his life.
It [enlightenment] has not come to you by means of teaching! And-thus is my thought, oh exalted one,-nobody will obtain salvation by means of teachings! (character of Siddhartha, speaking to the Buddha)
For awakened human beings, there was no obligation—none, none, none at all—except this: to search for yourself, become sure of yourself, feel your way forward along your own path, wherever it led.
Possibly the apparent relapse they had suffered was not a fall and a cause for suffering, but a leap forward and a positive act.
Gratitude is not a virtue I believe in, and to me it seems hypocritical to expect it from a child.
Were not the gods forms created like me and you, mortal, transient?
Once a man takes honesty as his ideal, he cannot confine himself to showing the pleasant and reasonable side of his nature.
Once a man takes honesty as his ideal, he cannot confine himself to showing to pleasant and reasonable side of his nature.
That is where my dearest and brightest dreams have ranged — to hear for the duration of a heartbeat the universe and the totality of life in its mysterious, innate harmony.
They slept profoundly, desperately, greedily, as though for the last time, as though they had been condemned to stay awake forever and had to drink in all the sleep in the world during these last hours.
It is possible for one never to transgress a single law and still be a bastard.
I realize today that nothing in the world is more distasteful to a man than to take the path that leads to himself.
Good stories are like those noble wild animals that make their home in hidden spots, and you must often settle down at the entrance of the caves and woods and lie in wait for them a long time.
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.
One never reaches home,’ she said. ‘But where paths that have an affinity for each other intersect, the whole world looks like home, for a time.
Young people have many pleasures and many sorrows, because they have only themselves to think of.
We are sun and moon, dear friend; we are sea and land. It is not our purpose to become each other; it is to recognize each other, to learn to see the other and honor him for what he is: each the other’s opposite and complement.
… it would be better for our country and the world in general, if at least the few people who were capable of thought stood for reason and the love of peace instead of heading wildly with blind obsession for new war.
Solitude is independence. It had been my wish and with the years I had attained it. It was cold. Oh, cold enough! But it was also still, wonderfully still and vast like the cold stillness of space in which the stars revolve.
Loneliness is the way by which destiny endeavors to lead man to himself.
Solitude is independence. It had been my wish and with the years I have attained it.
We are not going in circles, we are going upwards. The path is a spiral; we have already climbed many steps.
…for you know that soft is stronger than hard, water stronger than rock, love stronger than force.” Vesadeva to Siddartha
Merchant: ‘So you have lived on the possessions of others?’Saddhartha: ‘Apparently. The merchant also lives on the possession of others.’Merchant: ‘Well spoken…
I closed my eyes obediently; I felt a light kiss on my lips, on which there was always a little accumulation of blood that wouldn’t decrease. And then I fell asleep
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 tried to think of death as he had done now and then, but that tired him and he dozed off. When he awoke an hour later, he felt fresh and calm as though he had slept for days.
An enlightened man had but one duty – to seek the way to himself, to reach inner certainty, to grope his way forward, no matter where it led.
The world, my friend Govinda, is not imperfect, or on a slow path towards perfection: no, it is perfect in every moment, all sin already carries the divine forgiveness in itself.
If the chick is not able to break the shell of his egg, he will die without being born. We are – chick. The world – is our egg. If we do not break the shell of the world, then we will die without being born
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.
All the girls I had ever loved were mine. Each gave me what she alone had to give and to each I gave what she alone knew how to take.
When dealing with the insane, the best method is to pretend to be sane.
You are only afraid if you are not in harmony with yourself.
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. Simple enough.
…and as far as talent is concerned, there will be such an excess that our artists will become their own audiences, and audiences made up of ordinary people will no longer exist.
No permanence is ours; we are a waveThat flows to fit whatever form it finds:Through day or night, cathedral or caveWe pass forever, craving form that binds.
then Siddhartha began to understand that his son had not brought him happiness and peace, but suffering and worry. But he loved him, and he preferred the suffering and worries of love over happiness and joy without the boy.
Seeking nothing, emulating nothing, breathing gently, he moved in an atmosphere of imperishable calm, impresihable light, inviolable peace.
That is just what life is when it is beautiful and happy – a game! Naturally, one can also do all kinds of other things with it, make a duty of it, or a battleground, or a prison, but that does not make it any prettier…
I believe that the struggle against death the unconditional and self-willed determination to live is the mode of power behind the lives and activities of all outstanding men.
If you hate a person you hate something in him that is part of yourself.
If you hate a person you hate something in him that is part of yourself. What isn’t part of ourselves doesn’t disturb us.
Some of us think holding on makes us strong but sometimes it is letting go.
The middle class prefers comfort to pleasure convenience to liberty and a pleasant temperature to the deathly inner consuming fire.
Every man is more than just himself he also represents the unique the very special and always significant and remarkable point at which the world’s phenomena intersect only once in this way and never again.
Those who are too lazy and comfortable to think for themselves and be their own judges obey the laws. Others sense their own laws within them.
There is no reality except the one contained within us. That is why so many people live such an unreal life. They take the images outside them for reality and never allow the world within to assert itself.
There is no reality except the one contained within us.
Everything becomes a little different as soon as it is spoken out loud.
Some of us think holding on makes us strong but sometimes it is letting go.
The call of death is a call of love. Death can be sweet if we answer it in the affirmative, if we accept it as one of the great eternal forms of life and transformation.
To be able to throw one’s self away for the sake of a moment, to be able to sacrifice years for a woman’s smile – that is happiness.
Happiness is a how; not a what. A talent, not an object.
There is, so I believe, in the essence of everything, something that we cannot call learning. There is, my friend, only a knowledge – that is everywhere.
To study history means submitting to chaos and nevertheless retaining faith in order and meaning.
Knowledge can be communicated, but not wisdom. One can find it, live it, be fortified by it, do wonders through it, but one cannot communicate and teach it.
You are only afraid if you are not in harmony with yourself. People are afraid because they have never owned up to themselves.
People with courage and character always seem sinister to the rest.
It is not our purpose to become each other; it is to recognize each other, to learn to see the other and honor him for what he is.
One never reaches home, but wherever friendly paths intersect the whole world looks like home for a time.