Arthur Schopenhauer (February 22, 1788 - September 21, 1860) was a
German philosopher best known for his book, The World as Will and
Representation, in which he claimed that our world is driven by a
continually dissatisfied will, continually seeking satisfaction.
Influenced by Eastern thought, he maintained that the "truth was
recognized by the sages of India"; consequently, his solutions to
suffering were similar to those of Vedantic and Buddhist thinkers (i.e.
asceticism); his faith in "transcendental ideality" led him to accept
atheism and learn from Christian philosophy. (Click
here for full Wikipedia article)
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A man's face as a rule says more, and more interesting things, than his
mouth, for it is a compendium of everything his mouth will ever say, in
that it is the monogram of all this man's thoughts and aspirations.
Anybody can sympathize with another's sorrow, but to sympathize with
another's joy is the attribute of an angel.
Because people have no thoughts to deal in, they deal cards, and try and
win one another's money. Idiots!
Buying books would be a good thing if one could also buy the time to
read them in: but as a rule the purchase of books is mistaken for the
appropriation of their contents.
Change alone is eternal, perpetual, immortal.
Compassion for animals is intimately connected with goodness of
character; and it may be confidently asserted that he who is cruel to
animals cannot be a good man.
Compassion is the basis of all morality.
Console yourself by remembering that the world doesn't deserve your
affection.
Do not shorten the morning by getting up late, or waste it in unworthy
occupations or in talk; look upon it as the quintessence of life, as to
a certain extent sacred. Evening is like old age: we are languid,
talkative, silly. Each day is a little life: every waking and rising a
little birth, every fresh morning a little youth, every going to rest
and sleep a little death.
Dogma is intended for, and suited to, the great mass of the human race;
and as such it can contain merely allegorical truth that it nevertheless
has to pass off as truth sensu proprio.
Every child is in a way a genius; and every genius is in a way a child.
Every man takes the limits of his own field of vision for the limits of
the world.
Every parting gives a foretaste of death; every coming together again a
foretaste of the resurrection. This is why even people who were
indifferent to each other rejoice so much if they come together again
after twenty or thirty years' separation.
Everybody's friend is nobody's.
Fame is something which must be won; honor, only something which must
not be lost.
Great minds are related to the brief span of time during which they live
as great buildings are to a little square in which they stand: you
cannot see them in all their magnitude because you are standing too
close to them.
Hatred is an affair of the heart; contempt that of the head.
Honor has not to be won; it must only not be lost.
If there is anything in the world that can really be called a man's
property, it is surely that which is the result of his mental activity.
If wicked actions are atoned for only in the next world, stupid ones are
only atoned for in this.
If you want to know your true opinion of someone, watch the effect
produced in you by the first sight of a letter from him.
In early youth, as we contemplate our coming life, we are like children
in a theatre before the curtain is raised, sitting there in high spirits
and eagerly waiting for the play to begin.
In our monogamous part of the world, to marry means to halve one's
rights and double one's duties.
In the sphere of thought, absurdity and perversity remain the masters of
the world, and their dominion is suspended only for brief periods.
Intellect is invisible to the man who has none.
It is difficult, if not impossible, to define the limit of our
reasonable desires in respect of possessions.
It would be a good thing to buy books if one could also buy the time to
read them; but one usually confuses the purchase of books with the
acquisition of their contents.
Life is a business that does not cover the costs.
Life is short and truth works far and lives long: let us speak the truth.
Man can do what he wills but he cannot will what he wills.
Man is the only animal who causes pain to others with no other object
than wanting to do so.
Many learned persons have read themselves stupid.
Men are by nature merely indifferent to one another; but women are by
nature enemies.
Money is human happiness in the abstract: he, then, who is no longer
capable of enjoying human happiness in the concrete devotes his heart
entirely to money.
Mostly it is loss which teaches us about the worth of things.
National character is only another name for the particular form which
the littleness, perversity and baseness of mankind take in every
country. Every nation mocks at other nations, and all are right.
Newspapers are the second hand of history. This hand, however, is
usually not only of inferior metal to the other hands, it also seldom
works properly.
Obstinacy is the result of the will forcing itself into the place of the
intellect.
Opinion is like a pendulum and obeys the same law. If it goes past the
centre of gravity on one side, it must go a like distance on the other;
and it is only after a certain time that it finds the true point at
which it can remain at rest.
Patriotism, when it wants to make itself felt in the domain of learning,
is a dirty fellow who should be thrown out of doors.
Reason is feminine in nature; it can only give after it has received. Of
itself it has nothing but the empty forms of its operation.
Style is nothing but the mere silhouette of thought; and an obscure or
bad style means a dull or confused brain.
Talent hits a target no one else can hit; genius hits a target no one
else can see.
Talent works for money and fame; the motive which moves genius to
productivity is, on the other hand, less easy to determine.
The animals are much more content with mere existence than we are; the
plants are wholly so; and man is so according to how dull and
insensitive he is.
The bad thing about all religions is that, instead of being able to
confess their allegorical nature, they have to conceal it...
The cheapest form of pride however is national pride. For it reveals in
the one thus afflicted the lack of individual qualities of which he
could be proud, while he would not otherwise reach for what he shares
with so many millions.
The closing years of life are like the end of a masquerade party, when
the masks are dropped.
The discovery of truth is prevented more effectively, not by the false
appearance things present and which mislead into error, not directly by
weakness of the reasoning powers, but by preconceived opinion, by
prejudice.
The effect of music is so very much more powerful and penetrating than
is that of the other arts, for these others speak only of the shadow,
but music of the essence.
The first forty years of life give us the text, the next thirty the
commentary.
The fundament upon which all our knowledge and learning rests is the
inexplicable.
The word of man is the most durable of all material.
There are two things which make it impossible to believe that this world
is the successful work of an all-wise, all-good, and, at the same time,
all-powerful Being; firstly, the misery which abounds in it everywhere;
and secondly, the obvious imperfection of its highest product, man, who
is a burlesque of what he should be.
There is no absurdity so palpable but that it may be firmly planted in
the human head if you only begin to inculcate it before the age of five,
by constantly repeating it with an air of great solemnity.
There is no doubt that life is given us, not to be enjoyed, but to be
overcome; to be got over.
There is no more mistaken path to happiness than worldliness, revelry,
high life.
There is something in us wiser than our head.
To free a man from error is to give, not to take away. Knowledge that a
thing is false is a truth. Error always does harm; sooner or later it
will bring mischief to the man who harbors it.
We can come to look upon the deaths of our enemies with as much regret
as we feel for those of our friends, namely, when we miss their
existence as witnesses to our success.
We forfeit three-fourths of ourselves in order to be like other people.
We must recognise the fact that mankind cannot get on without a certain
amount of absurdity, that absurdity is an element in its existence, and
illusion indispensable; as indeed other aspects of life testify.
Wealth is like sea-water; the more we drink, the thirstier we become.
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Arthur Schopenhauer,
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