Introduction,
Arthur Schopenhauer was a German philosopher born in Danzig, Prussia (now Gdansk, Poland) on February 22nd, 1788. He was the son of Johanna Schopenhauer, a successful author, and Heinrich Floris Schopenhauer, a merchant and banker. Schopenhauer’s family was wealthy and well-connected, which allowed him to pursue his studies without financial worries.
Schopenhauer is best known for his work, “The World as Will and Representation,” which he published in 1818. The book explores his ideas about the nature of reality, the concept of the will, and the role of art in human life. Schopenhauer’s philosophy was heavily influenced by Eastern thought, particularly Buddhism, and he saw the world as a place of suffering caused by the insatiable desires of the human will.
Schopenhauer died on September 21st, 1860, in Frankfurt, Germany. He had a long and prolific career as a philosopher and writer, publishing numerous essays and books on a wide range of topics, including ethics, aesthetics, and metaphysics. Despite facing criticism and rejection during his lifetime, Schopenhauer’s ideas would go on to influence many notable philosophers, writers, and thinkers, including Friedrich Nietzsche, Thomas Mann, and Albert Einstein. Today, he is considered one of the most important and original thinkers of the 19th century.
All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.
To live alone is the fate of all great souls.
The doctor sees all the weakness of mankind; the lawyer all the wickedness, the theologian all the stupidity.
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.
A man can be himself only so long as he is alone, and if he does not love solitude, he will not love freedom, for it is only when he is alone that he is really free.
Satisfaction consists in freedom from pain, which is the positive element of life.
A man can do what he wants, but not want what he wants.
All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.
The majority of men… are not capable of thinking, but only of believing, and… are not accessible to reason, but only to authority.
It is difficult to find happiness within oneself, but it is impossible to find it anywhere else.
A pessimist is an optimist in full possession of the facts.
A man can be himself only so long as he is alone; and if he does not love solitude, he will not love freedom; for it is only when he is alone that he is really free.
You are free to do what you want, but you are not free to want what you want.
A high degree of intellect tends to make a man unsocial.
Just remember, once you’re over the hill you begin to pick up speed.
We can regard our life as a uselessly disturbing episode in the blissful repose of nothingness.
We seldom think of what we have but always of what we lack. Therefore, rather than grateful, we are bitter.
Man is never happy, but spends his whole life in striving after something which he thinks will make him so.
Marrying means, to grasp blindfolded into a sack hoping to find out an eel out of an assembly of snakes.
The person who writes for fools is always sure of a large audience.
Religion is the masterpiece of the art of animal training, for it trains people as to how they shall think.
Women remain children all their lives, for they always see only what is near at hand, cling to the present, take the appearance of a thing for reality, and prefer trifling matters to the most important.
We forfeit three-quarters of ourselves in order to be like other people.
What people commonly call fate is mostly their own stupidity.
Happiness belongs to those who are sufficient unto themselves. For all external sources of happiness and pleasure are, by their very nature, highly uncertain, precarious, ephemeral and subject to chance.
Genius and madness have something in common: both live in a world that is different from that which exists for everyone else.
Almost all of our sorrows spring out of our relations with other people.
If we suspect that a man is lying, we should pretend to believe him; for then he becomes bold and assured, lies more vigorously, and is unmasked.
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 self-evident.
Man is the only animal who causes pain to others with no other object than wanting pleasure for himself.
Talent hits a target no one else can hit; Genius hits a target no one else can see.
The greatest of follies is to sacrifice health for any other kind of happiness.
To be conscious of being, you need to reclaim consciousness from the mind.
The more unintelligent a man is, the less mysterious existence seems to him.
Happiness is a willful state of mind.
Man is free at the moment he wishes to be.
Without music, life would be a mistake.
Treat a work of art like a prince: let it speak to you first.
The wise have always said the same things, and the fools, who are the majority, have always done just the opposite.
Every man takes the limits of his own field of vision for the limits of the world.
No one can construct for you the bridge upon which precisely you must cross the stream of life, no one but you yourself alone.
The more a man thinks, the better adapted he becomes to thinking.
The two enemies of human happiness are pain and boredom.
A sense of humor is the only divine quality of man.
Politeness is to human nature what warmth is to wax.
Compassion is the basis of all morality.
If we were not all so interested in ourselves, life would be so uninteresting that none of us would be able to endure it.
Pleasure is never as pleasant as we expected it to be and pain is always more painful.
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.
Change alone is eternal, perpetual, immortal.
All truth passes through three stages: First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.
Man is a genius when he is dreaming.
