Arthur Schopenhauer Quotes
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You must treat a work of art like a great man: stand before it and wait patiently till it deigns to speak.
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A good supply of resignation is of the first importance in providing for the journey of life.
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The deep pain that is felt at the death of every friendly soul arises from the feeling that there is in every individual something which is inexpressible, peculiar to him alone, and is, therefore, absolutely and irretrievably lost.
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Intellect is invisible to the man who has none.
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Most men are so thoroughly subjective that nothing really interests them but themselves.
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It is only the hope of what is claimed that begets and nurishes the wish.
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Wicked thoughts and worthless efforts gradually set their mark on the face, especially the eyes.
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Night gives a black look to everything, whatever it may be.
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For the world is Hell, and men are on the one hand the tormented souls and on the other the devils in it.
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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.
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Something of great importance now past is inferior to something of little importance now present, in that the latter is a reality, and related to the former as something to nothing.
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The common man is not concerned about the passage of time, the man of talent is driven by it.
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If we were not all so interested in ourselves, life would be so uninteresting that none of us would be able to endure it.
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Talent hits a target no one else can hit; Genius hits a target no one else can see.
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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.
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What disturbs and depresses young people is the hunt for happiness on the firm assumption that it must be met with in life. From this arises constantly deluded hope and so also dissatisfaction. Deceptive images of a vague happiness hover before us in our dreams, and we search in vain for their original. Much would have been gained if, through timely advice and instruction, young people could have had eradicated from their minds the erroneous notion that the world has a great deal to offer them.
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Music is the melody whose text is the world.
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The happiness which we receive from ourselves is greater than that which we obtain from our surroundings. . . . The world in which a person lives shapes itself chiefly by the way in which he or she looks at it.
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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.
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To desire immortality is to desire the eternal perpetuation of a great mistake.
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To be alone is the fate of all great minds—a fate deplored at times, but still always chosen as the less grievous of two evils.
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There is more to be learnt from every page of David Hume than from the collected philosophical works of Hegel, Herbart, and Schleiermacher are taken together.
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Animals hear about death for the first time when they die.
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Hope is the confusion of the desire for a thing with its probability.