The ferryman listened very attentively. Listening, he absorbed everything, origin and childhood, all the learning, all the seeking, all joy, all woe. One of the ferryman’s greatest virtues was that he knew how to listen like few other people. Without a word, the speaker felt that the ferryman took in his words, silent, open, waiting, missing none, impatient for none, neither praising nor blaming, but only listening. Siddartha felt what happiness it is to unburdened himself to such a listener, to sink his own life into his listener’s heart. his own seeking, his own suffering.
– Hermann Hesse, Siddartha
