Arthur Schopenhauer Quotes
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Every parting gives a foretaste of death; every coming together again a foretaste of the resurrection.
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In general admittedly the Wise of all times have always said the same thing, and the fools, that is to say the vast majority of all times, have always done the same thing, i.e. the opposite; and so it will remain in the future.
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The vanity of existence is revealed in the whole form existence assumes: in the infiniteness of time and space contrasted with the finiteness of the individual in both; in the fleeting present as the sole form in which actuality exists; in the contingency and relativity of all things; in continual becoming without being; in continual desire without satisfaction; in the continual frustration of striving of which life consists. . . Time is that by virtue of which everything becomes nothingness in our hands and loses all real value.
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A man who has no mental needs, because his intellect is of the narrow and normal amount, is, in the strict sense of the word, what is called a philistine.
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The reason domestic pets are so lovable and so helpful to us is because they enjoy, quietly and placidly, the present moment.
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Boredom is an evil that is not to be estimated lightly. It can come in the end to real despair. The public authority takes precautions against it everywhere, as against other universal calamities.
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Education perverts the mind since we are directly opposing the natural development of our mind by obtaining ideas first and observations last. This is why so few men of learning have such sound common sense as is quite common among the illiterate.
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Zuvörderst nämlich wird eine Regierung nicht Leute besolden, um Dem, was sie durch tausend von ihr angestellte Priester, oder Religionslehrer, von allen Kanzeln verkünden läßt, direkt, oder auch nur indirekt, zu widersprechen. … Daher der Grundsatz improbant secus docentes.
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Scoundrels are always sociable.
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Each day is a little life.
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We can regard our life as a uselessly disturbing episode in the blissful repose of nothingness.
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It is only in the microscope that our life looks so big.
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Means at our disposal should be regarded as a bulwark against the many evils and misfortunes that can occur. We should not regard such wealth as a permission or even an obligation to procure for ourselves the pleasures of the world.
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Suffering by nature or chance never seems so painful as suffering inflicted on us by the arbitrary will of another.
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Memory works like the collection glass in the Camera obscura: it gathers everything together and therewith produces a far more beautiful picture than was present originally.
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The old woman dies, the burden is lifted.
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Men need some kind of external activity, because they are inactive within.
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A man can surely do what he wills to do, but cannot determine what he wills.
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The greatest intellectual capacities are only found in connection with a vehement and passionate will.
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If at any moment Time stays his hand, it is only when we are delivered over to the miseries of boredom.
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The man never feels the want of what it never occurs to him to ask for.
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With people of limited ability modesty is merely honesty. But with those who possess great talent it is hypocrisy.
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In our monogamous part of the world, to marry means to halve one’s rights and double one’s duties.
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In youth it is the outward aspect of things that most engages us; while in age, thought or reflection is the predominating qualityof the mind. Hence, youth is the time for poetry, and age is more inclined to philosophy. In practical affairs it is the same: a man shapes his resolutions in youth more by the impression that the outward world makes upon him; whereas, when he is old, it is thought that determines his actions.