Arthur Schopenhauer Quotes
-
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.
-
Physics is unable to stand on its own feet, but needs a metaphysics on which to support itself, whatever fine airs it may assume towards the latter.
-
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.
-
What people commonly call Fate is, as a general rule, nothing but their own stupid and foolish conduct.
-
For what is modesty but hypocritical humility, by means of which, in a world swelling with vile envy, a man seeks to beg pardon for his excellences and merits from those who have none? For whoever attributes no merit to himself because he really has none is not modest, but merely honest.
-
Truth is no harlot who throws her arms round the neck of him who does not desire her; on the contrary, she is so coy a beauty that even the man who sacrifices everything to her can still not be certain of her favors.
-
No one knows what capacities for doing and suffering he has in himself, until something comes to rouse them to activity: just as in a pond of still water, lying there like a mirror, there is no sign of the roar and thunder with which it can leap from the precipice, and yet remain what it is; or again, rise high in the air as a fountain. When water is as cold as ice, you can have no idea of the latent warmth contained in it.
-
Every human perfection is linked to an error which it threatens to turn into.
-
This world could not have been the work of an all-loving being, but that of a devil, who had brought creatures into existence in order to delight in the sight of their sufferings.
-
Religion is the metaphysics of the masses.
-
Suffering by nature or chance never seems so painful as suffering inflicted on us by the arbitrary will of another.
-
Just as the witticism brings two very different real objects under one concept, the pun brings two different concepts, by the assistance of accident, under one word.
-
The greatest intellectual capacities are only found in connection with a vehement and passionate will.
-
Hence, in all countries the chief occupation of society is card-playing, and it is the gauge of its value, and an outward sign that it is bankrupt in thought. Because people have no thoughts to deal in, they deal cards, and try and win one another’s money. Idiots!
-
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.
-
No one can transcend their own individuality.
-
The reason domestic pets are so lovable and so helpful to us is because they enjoy, quietly and placidly, the present moment.
-
Reading is merely a surrogate for thinking for yourself; it means letting someone else direct your thoughts.
-
It is difficult to keep quiet if you have nothing to do.
-
If the world were a paradise of luxury and ease, a land flowing with milk and honey, where every Jack obtained his Jill at once and without any difficulty, men would either die of boredom or hang themselves; or there would be wars, massacres, and murders; so that in the end mankind would inflict more suffering on itself than it has now to accept at the hands of Nature.
-
What now on the other hand makes people sociable is their incapacity to endure solitude and thus themselves.
-
Every parting is a foretaste of death, and every reunion a foretaste of resurrection.
-
All wanting comes from need, therefore from lack, therefore from suffering.
-
...in the end every one stands alone, and the important thing is who it is that stands alone.