Although he was known for his
pessimistic philosophical outlook, Arthur Schopenhauer possessed great clarity and insight into human nature as evidenced in these brilliant
quotes.
The Quotes
Because people have no thoughts to deal in, they deal cards, and try and win one
another's money. Idiots!
We forfeit three-fourths of ourselves in order to be like other people.
Money is human happiness in the abstract; he, then, who is no longer capable of enjoying human happiness in the concrete devotes himself utterly to money.
The closing years of life are like the end of a masquerade party, when the masks are dropped.
Every man takes the limits of his own field of vision for the limits of the world.
Compassion is the basis of morality.
Without books the development of civilization would have been impossible. They are the engines of change, windows on the world,
'Lighthouses' as the poet said 'erected in the sea of time.'
They are companions, teachers, magicians, bankers of the treasures of the mind. Books are humanity in print.
With people of limited ability modesty is merely honesty. But with those who possess great talent it is hypocrisy.
If you want to know your true opinion of someone, watch the effect produced in you by the first sight of a letter from him.
Talent hits a target no one else can hit; Genius hits a target no one else can see.
All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident
Will power is to the mind like a strong blind man who carries on his shoulders a lame man who can see.
It is in trifles, and when he is off his guard, that a man best shows his character.
Fame is something which must be won; honour is something which must not be lost.
Not to go to the theatre is like making one's toilet without a mirror.
Any book which is at all important should be re-read immediately.
The will is the strong blind man who carries on his shoulders the lame man who can see.
Reason deserves to be called a prophet; for in showing up the consequence and effect of our actions in the present, does it not tell us what the future will be?
Necessity is the constant scourge of the lower classes, ennui of the higher ones.
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.
Time is that in which all things pass away.
Life to the great majority is only a constant struggle for mere existence, with the certainty of losing it at last.
To overcome difficulties is to experience the full delight of existence.
Time is that in which all things pass away.
Every possession and every happiness is but lent by chance for an uncertain time, and may therefore be demanded back the next hour.
I observed once to Goethe... that when a friend is with us we do not think the same of him as when he is away. He replied,
"Yes! because the absent friend is yourself, and he
exists only in your head; whereas the friend who is present has an individuality of his own, and moves according to laws of his own, which cannot always be in accordance with those
which you form for yourself."
Pride ... is the direct appreciation of oneself.
Obstinacy is the result of the will forcing itself into the place of the intellect.
Do not shorten the morning by getting up late; look upon it as the quintessence of life, and to a certain extent sacred.
Noise is the most impertinent of all forms of interruption. It is not only an interruption, but is also a disruption of thought.
If we were not all so interested in ourselves, life would be so uninteresting that none of us would be able to endure it.
