The Role Of Wisdom And Knowledge In Hermann Hesse's Siddhartha

In the book Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse, throughout the entire book Siddhartha is taking a journey to what he thinks would help him find enlightenment, peace, wisdom, and knowledge. Siddhartha is taking this journey because he is in denial of his Brahmin heritage, and the teachings of Gotama, which his father gave to him, he feels like there is nothing more Gotama teachings can offer him to reach enlightenment. Wisdom and knowledge are two of the most topics brought up in “SIddhartha By Hermann Hesse”. It is either brought up by what Siddhartha believes, or by what Brahma teaches and what the lectures are in life. “But where were the Brahmans, were the priests, where the wise men or penitents, who had succeeded in not just knowing this deepest …show more content…
As Siddhartha learned about knowledge and wisdom through his journey,Siddhartha says “Wisdom is not communicable. The wisdom which a wise man tries to communicate always sounds foolish.”(Sidhartha 15) Siddhartha is emphasizing that there is no point of communicating to anyone other than yourself about wisdom because you can only learn from yourself. He also says “I have discovered knowledge can be communicated, but not wisdom. One can find it, liv it, be fortified by it, do wonders through it, but one cannot communicate and teach it.” (SIddhartha 15) This quote explains what Siddhartha learned through his journey and now understand the difference between knowledge and wisdom. Even Though mistakes are what we as humans only think about if we know what we did was wrong we gain much wisdom from that. This I think is the message throughout the whole book. We learn from our own mistakes, not from others