Arthur Schopenhauer Quotes
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A happy life is impossible; the best that a man can attain is a heroic life.
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In action a great heart is the chief qualification. In work, a great head.
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If two men who were friends in their youth meet again when they are old, after being separated for a life-time, the chief feeling they will have at the sight of each other will be one of complete disappointment at life as a whole; because their thoughts will be carried back to that earlier time when life seemed so fair as it lay spread out before them in the rosy light of dawn, promised so much — and then performed so little.
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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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The scenes of our life are like pictures done in rough mosaic. Looked at close, they produce no effect. There is nothing beautiful to be found in them, unless you stand some distance off.
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The appropriate form of address between man and man ought to be, not monsieur, sir, but fellow sufferer, compagnon de miseres.
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Scoundrels are always sociable.
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Life swings like a pendulum backward and forward between pain and boredom.
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Unrest is the mark of existence.
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This actual world of what is knowable, in which we are and which is in us, remains both the material and the limit of our consideration.
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No rose without a thorn but many a thorn without a rose.
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It is only in the microscope that our life looks so big.
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To attain something desired is to discover how vain it is; and…though we live all our lives in expectation of better things, we often at the same time long regretfully for what is past. The present, on the other hand, is regarded as something quite temporary and serving only as the road to our goal. That is why most men discover when they look back on their life that they have the whole time been living ad interim, and are surprised to see that which they let go by so unregarded and unenjoyed was precisely their life, was precisely in expectation of which they lived.
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Friends and acquaintances are the surest passport to fortune.
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No one writes anything worth writing, unless he writes entirely for the sake of his subject.
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In the whole world there is no study so beneficial and so elevating as that of the Upanishads. It has been the solace of my life, it will be the solace of my death.
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One should use common words to say uncommon things.
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The old woman dies, the burden is lifted.
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Every parting is a foretaste of death, and every reunion a foretaste of resurrection.
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There are, first of all, two kinds of authors: those who write for the subject's sake, and those who write for writing's sake. ... The truth is that when an author begins to write for the sake of covering paper, he is cheating the reader; because he writes under the pretext that he has something to say.
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The scenes and events of long ago, and the persons who took part in them, wear a charming aspect to the eye of memory, which sees only the outlines and takes no note of disagreeable details. The present enjoys no such advantage, and so it always seems defective.
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As a general rule, the longer a man's fame is likely to last, the later it will be in coming; for all excellent products require time for their development.
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Pleasure is never as pleasant as we expected it to be and pain is always more painful. The pain in the world always outweighs the pleasure. If you don't believe it, compare the respective feelings of two animals, one of which is eating the other.
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Journalists are like dogs, when ever anything moves they begin to bark.