Arthur Schopenhauer Quotes
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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.
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Life is a language in which certain truths are conveyed to us; if we could learn them in some other way, we should not live.
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Every parting is a foretaste of death, and every reunion a foretaste of resurrection.
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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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Thus also every keen pleasure is an error and an illusion, for no attained wish can give lasting satisfaction.
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A man becomes a philosopher by reason of a certain perplexity, from which he seeks to free himself.
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Talent works for money and fame; the motive which moves genius to productivity is, on the other hand, less easy to determine.
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Life is neither to be wept over nor to be laughed at but to be understood.
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Man is never happy, but spends his whole life in striving after something which he thinks will make him so.
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The man who goes up in a balloon does not feel as if he were ascending; he only sees the earth sinking deeper below him.
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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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It is only the man whose intellect is clouded by his sexual impulse that could give the name of the fair sex to that undersized, narrow-shouldered, broad-hipped, and short-legged race.
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Human existence is an error...it is bad today and every day it gets worse, until the worst happens.
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If at times I have thought myself unfortunate, it is because of a confusion, an error. I have mistaken myself for someone else... Who am I really? I am the author of The World as Will and Representation, I am the one who has given an answer to the mystery of Being that will occupy the thinkers of future centuries. That is what I am, and who can dispute it in the years of life that still remain for me?
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The principle of contradiction establishes merely the agreement of concepts, but does not itself produce concepts.
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The safest way of not being very miserable is not to expect to be very happy.
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Every hero is a Samson. The strong man succumbs to the intrigues of the weak and the many; and if in the end he loses all patience he crushes both them and himself.
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Hatred is an affair of the heart; contempt that of the head.
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The more unintelligent a man is, the less mysterious existence seems to him.
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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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Mankind cannot get on without a certain amount of absurdity.
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The little incidents and accidents of every day fill us with emotion, anxiety, annoyance, passion, as long as they are close to us, when they appear so big, so important, so serious; but as soon as they are borne down the restless stream of time they lose what significance they had; we think no more of them and soon forget them altogether. They were big only because they were near.
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Men are the devils of the earth, and the animals are its tormented souls.
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There is no doubt that life is given us, not to be enjoyed, but to be overcome; to be got over.