Arthur Schopenhauer Quotes
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In the blessings as well as in the ills of life, less depends upon what befalls us than upon the way in which it is met.
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If life — the craving for which is the very essence of our being — were possessed of any positive intrinsic value, there would be no such thing as boredom at all: mere existence would satisfy us in itself, and we should want for nothing.
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Happiness consists in frequent repetition of pleasure.
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The brut first knows death when it dies, but man draws consciously nearer to it every hour that he lives; and this makes his life at times a questionable good even to him who has not recognised this character of constant anaihilation in the whole of life.
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The general history of art and literature shows that the highest achievements of the human mind are, as a rule, not favourably received at first.
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NOT to my contemporaries, not to my compatriots but to mankind I commit my now completed work in the confidence that it will not be without value for them, even if this should be late recognised, as is commonly the lot of what is good. For it cannot have been for the passing generation, engrossed with the delusion of the moment, that my mind, almost against my will, has uninterruptedly stuck to its work through the course of a long life. preface to the second edition of "the world as will and representation.
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I constantly saw the false and the bad, and finally the absurd and the senseless, standing in universal admiration and honour.
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Every generation, no matter how paltry its character, thinks itself much wiser than the one immediately preceding it, let alone those that are more remote.
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There is no opinion, however absurd, which men will not readily embrace as soon as they can be brought to the conviction that it is generally adopted.
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You are free to do what you want, but you are not free to want what you want.
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There are very few who can think, but every man wants to have an opinion; and what remains but to take it ready-made from others, instead of forming opinions for himself?
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To form a judgment intuitively is the privilege of few; authority and example lead the rest of the world. They see with the eyes of others, they hear with the ears of others. Therefore it is very easy to think as all the world now think; but to think as all the world will think thirty years hence is not in the power of every one.
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Vengeance taken will often tear the heart and torment the conscience.
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Everybody's friend is nobody's.
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Optimism is not only a false but also a pernicious doctrine, for it presents life as a desirable state and man's happiness as its aim and object. Starting from this, everyone then believes he has the most legitimate claim to happiness and enjoyment. If, as usually happens, these do not fall to his lot, he believes that he suffers an injustice, in fact that he misses the whole point of his existence.
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Ordinary people merely think how they shall 'spend' their time; a man of talent tries to 'use' it.
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Faith is like love, it cannot be forced. Therefore it is a dangerous operation if an attempt be made to introduce or bind it by state regulations; for, as the attempt to force love begets hatred, so also to compel religious belief produces rank unbelief.
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When a new truth enters the world, the first stage of reaction to it is ridicule, the second stage is violent opposition, and in the third stage, that truth comes to be regarded as self-evident.
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Wealth as well as sea water. The more we drink, the more thirsty. The so famous.
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Style is what gives value and currency to thoughts.
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Everything that happens, happens of necessity.
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It is only a man's own fundamental thoughts that have truth and life in them.
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Consciousness is the mere surface of our minds, of which, as of the earth, we do not know the inside, but only the crust.
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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.