Arthur Schopenhauer was a German philosopher who is best known for his work The World as Will and Representation. He is considered to be one of the most influential philosophers of the 19th century and his work focused on the metaphysical nature of the world and the human experience. Schopenhauer's philosophy was based on Kantian idealism and he argued that the world is driven by a blind and irrational will.
What is the most famous quote by Arthur Schopenhauer ?
Talent hits a target no one else can hit, genius hits a target no one else can see.
— Arthur Schopenhauer
What can you learn from Arthur Schopenhauer (Life Lessons)
- Arthur Schopenhauer taught that life is filled with suffering and that the only way to find peace is to accept this truth and look inward for happiness.
- He believed that our will to live and our desires are the source of all our suffering, and that we should strive to be free from these attachments.
- He also argued that the only way to find true contentment is through self-reflection and understanding of the world around us.
The most astounding Arthur Schopenhauer quotes that will add value to your life
Following is a list of the best quotes, including various Arthur Schopenhauer inspirational quotes, and other famous sayings by Arthur Schopenhauer.
All truth passes through three stages.
First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.
It is difficult to find happiness within oneself, but it is impossible to find it anywhere else.
Talent hits a target no one else can hit. Genius hits a target no one else can see.
Genius and madness have something in common: both live in a world that is different from that which exists for everyone else.
All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.
Every miserable fool who has nothing at all of which he can be proud, adopts as a last resource pride in the nation to which he belongs; he is ready and happy to defend all its faults and follies tooth and nail, thus reimbursing himself for his own inferiority.
Nature shows that with the growth of intelligence comes increased capacity for pain, and it is only with the highest degree of intelligence that suffering reaches its supreme point.
Religions are like fireflies. They require darkness in order to shine.
Religion is the masterpiece of the art of animal training, for it trains people as to how they shall think.
Compassion for animals is intimately associated with goodness of character, and it may be confidently asserted that he who is cruel to animals cannot be a good man.
The two enemies of human happiness are pain and boredom.
Pessimistic quotes by Arthur Schopenhauer
Just remember, once you're over the hill you begin to pick up speed.
The person who writes for fools is always sure of a large audience.
If anyone spends almost the whole day in reading.
..he gradually loses the capacity for thinking...This is the case with many learned persons; they have read themselves stupid
Buying books would be a good thing if one could also buy the time to read them in: but as a rule the purchase of books is mistaken for the appropriation of their contents.
Change alone is eternal, perpetual, immortal.
The assumption that animals are without rights, and the illusion that our treatment of them has no moral significance, is a positively outrageous example of Western crudity and barbarity. Universal compassion is the only guarantee of morality.
Every parting gives a foretaste of death, every reunion a hint of the resurrection.
To feel envy is human, to savour schadenfreude is devilish
Quotations by Arthur Schopenhauer that are metaphysical and insightful
In the whole world there is no study so beneficial and so elevating as that of the Upanishads. It has been the solace of my life, it will be the solace of my death.
For an author to write as he speaks is just as reprehensible as the opposite fault, to speak as he writes; for this gives a pedantic effect to what he says, and at the same time makes him hardly intelligible.
Wealth is like sea-water; the more we drink, the thirstier we become; and the same is true of fame.
The discovery of truth is prevented more effectively, not by the false appearance things present and which mislead into error, not directly by weakness of the reasoning powers, but by preconceived opinion, by prejudice.
Almost all of our sorrows spring out of our relations with other people.
Friends and acquaintances are the surest passport to fortune.
It is a wise thing to be polite; consequently, it is a stupid thing to be rude. To make enemies by unnecessary and willful incivility, is just as insane a proceeding as to set your house on fire. For politeness is like a counter--an avowedly false coin, with which it is foolish to be stingy.
Sleep is the interest we have to pay on the capital which is called in at death;
and the higher the rate of interest and the more regularly it is paid, the further the date of redemption is postponed.
Great men are like eagles, and build their nest on some lofty solitude.
Religion is the masterpiece of the art of animal training, for it trains people as to how they shall think.
A man of genius can hardly be sociable, for what dialogues could indeed be so intelligent and entertaining as his own monologues?
After your death you will be what you were before your birth.
There is no more mistaken path to happiness than worldliness, revelry, high life.
Hatred is an affair of the heart; contempt that of the head.
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.
Men are by nature merely indifferent to one another; but women are by nature enemies.
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?
Will power is to the mind like a strong blind man who carries on his shoulders a lame man who can see.
To overcome difficulties is to experience the full delight of existence.
We forfeit three-quarters of ourselves in order to be like other people.
Opinion is like a pendulum and obeys the same law. If it goes past the centre of gravity on one side, it must go a like distance on the other; and it is only after a certain time that it finds the true point at which it can remain at rest.
The fruits of Christianity were religious wars, butcheries, crusades, inquisitions, extermination of the natives of America, and the introduction of African slaves in their place.
Journalists are like dogs, when ever anything moves they begin to bark.
If God made the world, I would not be that God, for the misery of the world would break my heart.
The more unintelligent a man is, the less mysterious existence seems to him.
The doctor sees all the weakness of mankind; the lawyer all the wickedness, the theologian all the stupidity.
Mostly it is loss which teaches us about the worth of things.
The safest way of not being very miserable is not to expect to be very happy.
A man can be himself only so long as he is alone.
Life swings like a pendulum backward and forward between pain and boredom.
Books are like a mirror. If an ass looks in, you can't expect an angel to look out.
Every man takes the limits of his own field of vision for the limits of the world.
A man can surely do what he wills to do, but cannot determine what he wills.