Arthur Schopenhauer

Arthur Schopenhauer

"It would be better if there were nothing. Since there is more pain than pleasure on earth, every satisfaction is only transitory, creating new desires and new distresses, and the agony of the devoured animal is always far greater than the pleasure of the devourer."
176 Quotes
"It would be better if there were nothing. Since there is more pain than pleasure on earth, every satisfaction is only transitory, creating new desires and new distresses, and the agony of the devoured animal is always far greater than the pleasure of the devourer."
Arthur Schopenhauer
"The safest way of not being very miserable is not to expect to be very happy."
Arthur Schopenhauer
"Religion is the masterpiece of the art of animal training, for it trains people as to how they shall think."
Arthur Schopenhauer
"They tell us that Suicide is the greatest piece of Cowardice... That Suicide is wrong; when it is quite obvious that there is nothing in this world to which every man has a more unassailable title than to his own life and person."
Arthur Schopenhauer
"Mostly it is loss which teaches us about the worth of things."
Arthur Schopenhauer Parerga and Paralipomena
"Just as one spoils the stomach by overfeeding and thereby impairs the whole body, so can one overload and choke the mind by giving it too much nourishment. For the more one reads the fewer are the traces left of what one has read; the mind is like a tablet that has been written over and over. Hence it is impossible to reflect; and it is only by reflection that one can assimilate what one has read. If one reads straight ahead without pondering over it later, what has been read does not take root, but is for the most part lost."
Arthur Schopenhauer
"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."
Arthur Schopenhauer Counsels and Maxims
"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 is a sin against the holy ghost; it is like deserting untrammeled nature to look at a herbarium or engravings of landscapes."
Arthur Schopenhauer Essays and Aphorisms
"The art of not reading is a very important one. It consists in not taking an interest in whatever may be engaging the attention of the general public at any particular time. When some political or ecclesiastical pamphlet, or novel, or poem is making a great commotion, you should remember that he who writes for fools always finds a large public. A precondition for reading good books is not reading bad ones: for life is short."
Arthur Schopenhauer Essays and Aphorisms
"Any foolish boy can stamp on a beetle, but all the professors in the world cannot make a beetle."
Arthur Schopenhauer
"Health so far outweighs all external goods that a healthy beggars is truly more fortunate than a king in poor health."
Arthur Schopenhauer Parerga and Paralipomena
"In general, nine-tenths of our happiness depends on our health alone."
Arthur Schopenhauer Parerga and Paralipomena
"Every man takes the limits of his own field of vision for the limits of the world."
Arthur Schopenhauer Studies in Pessimism: The Essays
"Treat a work of art like a prince: let it speak to you first."
Arthur Schopenhauer
"“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.”"
Arthur Schopenhauer The Wisdom of Life
"“How very paltry and limited the normal human intellect is, and how little lucidity there is in the human consciousness, may be judged from the fact that, despite the ephemeral brevity of human life, the uncertainty of our existence and the countless enigmas which press upon us from all sides, everyone does not continually and ceaselessly philosophize, but that only the rarest of exceptions do.”"
Arthur Schopenhauer
"“Just as one spoils the stomach by overfeeding and thereby impairs the whole body, so can one overload and choke the mind by giving it too much nourishment. For the more one reads the fewer are the traces left of what one has read; the mind is like a tablet that has been written over and over. Hence it is impossible to reflect; and it is only by reflection that one can assimilate what one has read. If one reads straight ahead without pondering over it later, what has been read does not take root, but is for the most part lost.”"
Arthur Schopenhauer
"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."
Arthur Schopenhauer Parerga and Paralipomena
"A sense of humour is the only divine quality of man"
Arthur Schopenhauer
"“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.”"
Arthur Schopenhauer Parerga and Paralipomena
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