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9aedb81 We forfeit three-fourths of ourselves in order to be like other people. inspirational Arthur Schopenhauer
dc2ceb4 A high degree of intellect tends to make a man unsocial. Arthur Schopenhauer
6df908f If children were brought into the world by an act of pure reason alone, would the human race continue to exist? Would not a man rather have so much sympathy with the coming generation as to spare it the burden of existence, or at any rate not take it upon himself to impose that burden upon it in cold blood? death life pessimism Arthur Schopenhauer
ac7ee6a Great men are like eagles, and build their nest on some lofty solitude inspirational Arthur Schopenhauer
58ae38f Philosophy ... is a science, and as such has no articles of faith; accordingly, in it nothing can be assumed as existing except what is either positively given empirically, or demonstrated through indubitable conclusions. existence science philosophy empirical knowledge Arthur Schopenhauer
6e60b0b Hope is the confusion of the desire for a thing with its probability. Arthur Schopenhauer
075c51a I have not yet spoken my last word about women. I believe that if a woman succeeds in withdrawing from the mass, or rather raising herself from above the mass, she grows ceaselessly and more than a man. women personal-growth superiority Arthur Schopenhauer
f5637bc Reading is merely a surrogate for thinking for yourself; it means letting someone else direct your thoughts. Many books, moreover, serve merely to show how many ways there are of being wrong, and how far astray you yourself would go if you followed their guidance. You should read only when your own thoughts dry up, which will of course happen frequently enough even to the best heads; but to banish your own thoughts so as to take up a book i.. reading Arthur Schopenhauer
15273e0 Human life must be some kind of mistake. The truth of this will be sufficiently obvious if we only remember that man is a compound of needs and necessities hard to satisfy; and that even when they are satisfied, all he obtains is a state of painlessness, where nothing remains to him but abandonment to boredom. This is direct proof that existence has no real value in itself; for what is boredom but the feeling of the emptiness of life? If li.. Arthur Schopenhauer
2173247 The life of every individual, viewed as a whole and in general, and when only its most significant features are emphasized, is really a tragedy; but gone through in detail it has the character of a comedy. tragedy life Arthur Schopenhauer
5fbfc0f Buying books would be a good thing if one could also buy the time to read them; but as a rule the purchase of books is mistaken for the appropriation of their contents. words literature reading Arthur Schopenhauer
9b85006 One can never read too little of bad, or too much of good books: bad books are intellectual poison; they destroy the mind. In order to read what is good one must make it a condition never to read what is bad; for life is short, and both time and strength limited. Arthur Schopenhauer
535012e To feel envy is human, to savour schadenfreude is devilish. Arthur Schopenhauer
f2c1707 The business of the novelist is not to relate great events, but to make small ones interesting. writing-craft Arthur Schopenhauer
5c0c647 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? Arthur Schopenhauer
371cad6 Reading is thinking with someone else's head instead of ones own. reading schopenhauer Arthur Schopenhauer
d6ba4d6 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. existence life value Arthur Schopenhauer
7bc8bcd Men are the devils of the earth, and the animals are the tormented souls. - animal-welfare animal-rights cruelty Arthur Schopenhauer
ff92bd7 There is some wisdom in taking a gloomy view, in looking upon the world as a kind of Hell, and in confining one's efforts to securing a little room that shall not be exposed to the fire. Arthur Schopenhauer
945bab8 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. Arthur Schopenhauer
f128f0e The best consolation in misfortune or affliction of any kind will be the thought of other people who are in a still worse plight than yourself; and this is a form of consolation open to every one. But what an awful fate this means for mankind as a whole! We are like lambs in a field, disporting themselves under the eye of the butcher, who chooses out first one and then another for his prey. philosophy philosophy-of-life Arthur Schopenhauer
54ca65f To free a man from error is to give, not to take away. Knowledge that a thing is false is a truth. Error always does harm; sooner or later it will bring mischief to the man who harbors it. Arthur Schopenhauer
0293dd5 However, for the man who studies to gain , books and studies are merely rungs of the ladder on which he climbs to the summit of knowledge. As soon as a rung has raised him up one step, he leaves it behind. On the other hand, the many who study in order to fill their memory do not use the rungs of the ladder for climbing, but take them off and load themselves with them to take away, rejoicing at the increasing weight of the burden. They rem.. Arthur Schopenhauer
da2e4ad Life is short and truth works far and lives long: let us speak the truth. Arthur Schopenhauer
37c3489 A poet or philosopher should have no fault to find with his age if it only permits him to do his work undisturbed in his own corner; nor with his fate if the corner granted him allows of his following his vocation without having to think about other people. poets funny philosophy schopenhauer misanthropy Arthur Schopenhauer
26d6455 The scenes in our life resemble pictures in a rough mosaic; they are ineffective from close up, and have to be viewed from a distance if they are to seem beautiful. That is why to attain something desired is to discover how vain it is; and why, 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.. Arthur Schopenhauer
bbdc040 There is not much to be got anywhere in the world. It is filled with misery and pain; if a man escapes these, boredeom lies in wait for him at every corner. Nay more; it is evil which generally has the upper hand, and folly that makes the most noise. Fate is cruel and mankind pitiable. philosophy schopenhauer Arthur Schopenhauer
c7c2776 The conviction that the world, and therefore man too, is something which really ought not to exist is in fact calculated to instil in us indulgence towards one another: for what can be expected of beings placed in such a situation as we are? From this point of view one might indeed consider that the appropriate form of address between man and man ought to be, not monsieur, sir, but fellow sufferer, . However strange this may sound it corre.. Arthur Schopenhauer
50c8ef1 Whatever torch we kindle, and whatever space it may illuminate, our horizon will always remain encircled by the depth of night. Arthur Schopenhauer
5f70ac9 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. Arthur Schopenhauer
70d5502 What give all that is tragic, whatever its form, the characteristic of the sublime, is the first inkling of the knowledge that the world and life can give no satisfaction, and are not worth our investment in them. The tragic spirit consists in this. Accordingly it leads to resignation. tragedy satisfaction sublime Arthur Schopenhauer
66b4774 No one writes anything worth writing, unless he writes entirely for the sake of his subject. writing truth authorship Arthur Schopenhauer
1435933 Night gives a black look to everything, whatever it may be. Arthur Schopenhauer
f9909e7 In order to elucidate especially and most clearly the origination of this error (...) let us imagine a man who, while standing on the street, would say to himself: "It is six o'clock in the evening, the working day is over. Now I can go for a walk, or I can go to the club; I can also climb up the tower to see the sunset; I can go to the theater; I can visit this friend or that one; indeed, I also can run out of the gate, into the wide worl.. Arthur Schopenhauer
8944ee6 The intellectual attainments of a man who thinks for himself resemble a fine painting, where the light and shade are correct, the tone sustained, the colour perfectly harmonised; it is true to life. On the other hand, the intellectual attainments of the mere man of learning are like a large palette, full of all sorts of colours, which at most are systematically arranged, but devoid of harmony, connection and meaning. philosophy Arthur Schopenhauer
38a2491 And to this world, to this scene of tormented and agonised beings, who only continue to exist by devouring each other, in which, therefore, every ravenous beast is the living grave of thousands of others, and its self-maintenance is a chain of painful deaths; and in which the capacity for feeling pain increases with knowledge, and therefore reaches its highest degree in man, a degree which is the higher the more intelligent the man is; to t.. philosophy englisch philosophie german Arthur Schopenhauer
3f34136 Many undoubtedly owe their good fortune to the circumstance that they possess a pleasing smile with which they win hearts. Yet these hearts would do better to beware and to learn from Hamlet's tables that one may smile, and smile, and be a villain. Arthur Schopenhauer
6cb37e8 If human nature were not base, but thoroughly honourable, we should in every debate have no other aim than the discovery of truth; we should not in the least care whether the truth proved to be in favour of the opinion which we had begun by expressing, or of the opinion of our adversary. That we should regard as a matter of no moment, or, at any rate, of very secondary consequence; but, as things are, it is the main concern. Our innate vani.. truth falsehood vanity Arthur Schopenhauer
4002c36 But it is common knowledge that religions don't want conviction, on the basis of reasons, but faith, on the basis of revelation. And the capacity for faith is at its strongest in childhood: which is why religions apply themselves before all else to getting these tender years into their possession. It is in this way, even more than by threats and stories of miracles, that the doctrines of faith strike roots: for if, in earliest childhood, a .. Arthur Schopenhauer
5e1d65e Each day is a little life: every waking and rising a little birth, every fresh morning a little youth, every going to rest and sleep a little death. life philosophy wisdom Arthur Schopenhauer
39ecf13 And yet, just as our body would burst asunder if the pressure of the atmosphere were removed from it, so would the arrogance of men expand, if not to the point of bursting then to that of the most unbridled folly, indeed madness, if the pressure of want, toil, calamity and frustration were removed from their life. One can even say that we require at all times a certain quantity of care or sorrow or want, as a ship requires ballast, in order.. Arthur Schopenhauer
6f3167f He who can see truly in the midst of general infatuation is like a man whose watch keeps good time, when all clocks in the town in which he lives are wrong. He alone knows the right time; what use is that to him? Arthur Schopenhauer
2c5d72e A last trick is to become personal, insulting and rude as soon as you perceive that your opponent has the upper hand. In becoming personal you leave the subject altogether, and turn your attack on the person by remarks of an offensive and spiteful character. This is a very popular trick, because everyone is able to carry it into effect. Arthur Schopenhauer
6dd1ed4 Truth is most beautiful undraped. truth schopenhauer Arthur Schopenhauer
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