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Arthur Schopenhauer Quotes

Philosopher

Arthur Schopenhauer was a German philosopher known for his profound and often pessimistic views on life, human nature, and the will. His philosophy centers around the idea that suffering is an inherent part of existence, and that true contentment comes through transcending desires. The following quotes capture his deep reflections on the nature of reality, the human condition, and the pursuit of wisdom in a world filled with struggle.

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Great men are like eagles, and build their nest on some lofty solitude
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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.
From Parerga and Paralipomena
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Honor has not to be won; it must only not be lost.
From The Wisdom of Life
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When, at the end of their lives, most men look back they will find that they have lived throughout ad interim. They will be surprised to see that the very thing they allowed to slip unnapreciated and unenjoyed by was their life. And so a man, having been duped by hope, dances into the arms of death.
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We forfeit three-fourths of ourselves in order to be like other people.
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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.
From Parerga and Paralipomena
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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.
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Qualsiasi uomo notevole, chiunque cioè non appartenga a quei 5/6 dell'umanità dotati tanto miseramente dalla natura, rimarrà dopo i quarant'anni difficilmente esente da una certa traccia di misantropia.
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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.
From The Vanity of Existence
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Mostly it is loss which teaches us about the worth of things.
From Parerga and Paralipomena
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The life of an individual is a constant struggle, and not merely a metaphorical one against want or boredom, but also an actual struggle against other people. He discovers adversaries everywhere, lives in continual conflict and dies with sword in hand.
From On the Suffering of the World
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The fundament upon which all our knowledge and learning rests is the inexplicable.
From The Wisdom of Life and Counsels and Maxims
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After your death, you will be what you were before your birth.
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Talent hits a target no one else can hit. Genius hits a target no one else can see.
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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.
From On the Suffering of the World
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Happiness consists in frequent repetition of pleasure
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The shortness of life, so often lamented, may be the best thing about it.
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Death is the true inspiring genius, or the muse of philosophy, wherefore Socrates has defined the latter as θανάτου μελέτη. Indeed without death men would scarcely philosophise.
From The World as Will and Representation, Volume I
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Almost all of our sorrows spring out of our relations with other people. There is no more mistaken path to happiness than worldliness.
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Life swings like a pendulum backward and forward between pain and boredom.
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Writers may be classified as meteors, planets, and fixed stars. They belong not to one system, one nation only, but to the universe. And just because they are so very far away, it is usually many years before their light is visible to the inhabitants of this earth.
From Essays and Aphorisms
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We can regard our life as a uselessly disturbing episode in the blissful repose of nothingness.
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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.
From The World as Will and Representation, Volume I
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Let us see rather that like Janus—or better, like Yama, the Brahmin god of death—religion has two faces, one very friendly, one very gloomy...
From Essays and Aphorisms
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Great men are like eagles, and build their nest on some lofty solitude
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
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.
From Parerga and Paralipomena
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Honor has not to be won; it must only not be lost.
From The Wisdom of Life
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
When, at the end of their lives, most men look back they will find that they have lived throughout ad interim. They will be surprised to see that the very thing they allowed to slip unnapreciated and unenjoyed by was their life. And so a man, having been duped by hope, dances into the arms of death.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
We forfeit three-fourths of ourselves in order to be like other people.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
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.
From Parerga and Paralipomena
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
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.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Qualsiasi uomo notevole, chiunque cioè non appartenga a quei 5/6 dell'umanità dotati tanto miseramente dalla natura, rimarrà dopo i quarant'anni difficilmente esente da una certa traccia di misantropia.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
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.
From The Vanity of Existence
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Mostly it is loss which teaches us about the worth of things.
From Parerga and Paralipomena
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
The life of an individual is a constant struggle, and not merely a metaphorical one against want or boredom, but also an actual struggle against other people. He discovers adversaries everywhere, lives in continual conflict and dies with sword in hand.
From On the Suffering of the World
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
The fundament upon which all our knowledge and learning rests is the inexplicable.
From The Wisdom of Life and Counsels and Maxims
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
After your death, you will be what you were before your birth.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Talent hits a target no one else can hit. Genius hits a target no one else can see.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
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.
From On the Suffering of the World
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Happiness consists in frequent repetition of pleasure
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
The shortness of life, so often lamented, may be the best thing about it.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Death is the true inspiring genius, or the muse of philosophy, wherefore Socrates has defined the latter as θανάτου μελέτη. Indeed without death men would scarcely philosophise.
From The World as Will and Representation, Volume I
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Almost all of our sorrows spring out of our relations with other people. There is no more mistaken path to happiness than worldliness.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Life swings like a pendulum backward and forward between pain and boredom.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Writers may be classified as meteors, planets, and fixed stars. They belong not to one system, one nation only, but to the universe. And just because they are so very far away, it is usually many years before their light is visible to the inhabitants of this earth.
From Essays and Aphorisms
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
We can regard our life as a uselessly disturbing episode in the blissful repose of nothingness.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
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.
From The World as Will and Representation, Volume I
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Let us see rather that like Janus—or better, like Yama, the Brahmin god of death—religion has two faces, one very friendly, one very gloomy...
From Essays and Aphorisms
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Great men are like eagles, and build their nest on some lofty solitude
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
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.
From Parerga and Paralipomena
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Honor has not to be won; it must only not be lost.
From The Wisdom of Life
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
When, at the end of their lives, most men look back they will find that they have lived throughout ad interim. They will be surprised to see that the very thing they allowed to slip unnapreciated and unenjoyed by was their life. And so a man, having been duped by hope, dances into the arms of death.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
We forfeit three-fourths of ourselves in order to be like other people.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
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.
From Parerga and Paralipomena
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
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.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Qualsiasi uomo notevole, chiunque cioè non appartenga a quei 5/6 dell'umanità dotati tanto miseramente dalla natura, rimarrà dopo i quarant'anni difficilmente esente da una certa traccia di misantropia.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
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.
From The Vanity of Existence
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Mostly it is loss which teaches us about the worth of things.
From Parerga and Paralipomena
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
The life of an individual is a constant struggle, and not merely a metaphorical one against want or boredom, but also an actual struggle against other people. He discovers adversaries everywhere, lives in continual conflict and dies with sword in hand.
From On the Suffering of the World
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
The fundament upon which all our knowledge and learning rests is the inexplicable.
From The Wisdom of Life and Counsels and Maxims
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
After your death, you will be what you were before your birth.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Talent hits a target no one else can hit. Genius hits a target no one else can see.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
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.
From On the Suffering of the World
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Happiness consists in frequent repetition of pleasure
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
The shortness of life, so often lamented, may be the best thing about it.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Death is the true inspiring genius, or the muse of philosophy, wherefore Socrates has defined the latter as θανάτου μελέτη. Indeed without death men would scarcely philosophise.
From The World as Will and Representation, Volume I
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Almost all of our sorrows spring out of our relations with other people. There is no more mistaken path to happiness than worldliness.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Life swings like a pendulum backward and forward between pain and boredom.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Writers may be classified as meteors, planets, and fixed stars. They belong not to one system, one nation only, but to the universe. And just because they are so very far away, it is usually many years before their light is visible to the inhabitants of this earth.
From Essays and Aphorisms
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
We can regard our life as a uselessly disturbing episode in the blissful repose of nothingness.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
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.
From The World as Will and Representation, Volume I
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Let us see rather that like Janus—or better, like Yama, the Brahmin god of death—religion has two faces, one very friendly, one very gloomy...
From Essays and Aphorisms
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
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