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. Following is our collection on famous quotes by Arthur Schopenhauer on life, love, marriage.
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.
Genius and madness have something in common: both live in a world that is different from that which exists for everyone else.
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.
Just remember, once you're over the hill you begin to pick up speed.
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.
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. — Arthur Schopenhauer
There is no more mistaken path to happiness than worldliness, revelry, high life. — Arthur Schopenhauer
Life swings like a pendulum backward and forward between pain and boredom. — Arthur Schopenhauer
Life is full of troubles and vexations, that one must either rise above it by means of corrected thoughts, or leave it. — Arthur Schopenhauer
We can regard our life as a uselessly disturbing episode in the blissful repose of nothingness. — Arthur Schopenhauer
That human life must be some kind of mistake is sufficiently proved by the simple observation that man is a compound of needs which are hard to satisfy; that their satisfaction achieves nothing but a painless condition in which he is only given over to boredom . . . — Arthur Schopenhauer
The closing years of life are like the end of a masquerade party, when the masks are dropped. — Arthur Schopenhauer
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. — Arthur Schopenhauer
Do not shorten the morning by getting up late; look upon it as the quintessence of life, as to a certain extent sacred. — Arthur Schopenhauer
Life without pain has no meaning. — Arthur Schopenhauer
Arthur Schopenhauer Quotes About Love
He who does not enjoy solitude will not love freedom. — Arthur Schopenhauer
Faith is like love: it does not let itself be forced. — Arthur Schopenhauer
The deep pain that is felt
at the death of every friendly soul
arises from the feeling that there is
in every individual something
which is inexpressible,
peculiar to him alone,
and is, therefore,
absolutely and irretrievably lost. — Arthur Schopenhauer
As my own father was sick, and miserably tied to his invalid's chair, he would have been abandoned had not an old servant performed for him a so-called service of love. My mother gave parties while he was perishing in solitude, and amused herself while he was suffering bitter agonies — Arthur Schopenhauer
Gaiety alone, as it were, is the hard cash of happiness; everything else is just a promissory note. — Arthur Schopenhauer
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. — Arthur Schopenhauer
The conviction that the world and man is something that had better not have been, is of a kind to fill us with indulgence towards one another. — Arthur Schopenhauer
This world could not have been the work of an all-loving being, but that of a devil, who had brought creatures into existence in order to delight in the sight of their sufferings. — Arthur Schopenhauer
Where there is no love, a person's faithfulness to the marriage bond is probably against nature. — Arthur Schopenhauer
Faith is like love, it cannot be forced. Therefore it is a dangerous operation if an attempt be made to introduce or bind it by state regulations; for, as the attempt to force love begets hatred, so also to compel religious belief produces rank unbelief. — Arthur Schopenhauer
Arthur Schopenhauer Quotes About Marriage
To marry is to halve your rights and double your duties. — Arthur Schopenhauer
Marrying means doing whatever possible to become repulsed of each other — Arthur Schopenhauer
In our monogamous part of the world, to marry means to halve one's rights and double one's duties. — Arthur Schopenhauer
Arthur Schopenhauer Quotes About Death
Every parting gives a foretaste of death, every reunion a hint of the resurrection. — Arthur Schopenhauer
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. — Arthur Schopenhauer
After your death you will be what you were before your birth. — Arthur Schopenhauer
Mostly it is loss which teaches us about the worth of things. — Arthur Schopenhauer
There is not a grain of dust, not an atom that can become nothing, yet man believes that death is the annhilation of his being. — Arthur Schopenhauer
I believe that when death closes our eyes we shall awaken to a light, of which our sunlight is but the shadow. — Arthur Schopenhauer
JedeTrennung gibt einenVorgeschmack desTodesund jedes Wiedersehen einenVorgeschmack der Auferstehung. Every parting is a foretaste of death, and every reunion a foretaste of resurrection. — Arthur Schopenhauer
For whence did Dante take the materials for his hell but from this our actual world? And yet he made a very proper hell of it. — Arthur Schopenhauer
Animals hear about death for the first time when they die. — Arthur Schopenhauer
We can come to look upon the deaths of our enemies with as much regret as we feel for those of our friends, namely, when we miss their existence as witnesses to our success. — Arthur Schopenhauer
Arthur Schopenhauer Quotes About Happiness
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. — Arthur Schopenhauer
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. — Arthur Schopenhauer
The safest way of not being very miserable is not to expect to be very happy. — Arthur Schopenhauer
If a relationship is perfectly natural there will be a complete fusion of the happiness of both of you-owing to fellow-feeling and various other laws which govern our natures, this is, quite simply, the greatest happiness that can exist. — Arthur Schopenhauer
Every possession and every happiness is but lent by chance for an uncertain time, and may therefore be demanded back the next hour. — Arthur Schopenhauer
In our early youth we sit before the life that lies ahead of us like children sitting before the curtain in a theatre, in happy and tense anticipation of whatever is going to appear. Luckily we do not know what really will appear. — Arthur Schopenhauer
Happiness consists in frequent repetition of pleasure — Arthur Schopenhauer
Money is human happiness in the abstract. — Arthur Schopenhauer
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. — Arthur Schopenhauer
The young should early be trained to bear being left alone; for it is a source of happiness and peace of mind. — Arthur Schopenhauer
Arthur Schopenhauer Quotes About Metaphysical
Religion is the metaphysics of the masses. — Arthur Schopenhauer
Physics is unable to stand on its own feet, but needs a metaphysics on which to support itself, whatever fine airs it may assume towards the latter. — Arthur Schopenhauer
I have described religion as the metaphysics of the people. — Arthur Schopenhauer
Arthur Schopenhauer Quotes About World
If God made the world, I would not be that God, for the misery of the world would break my heart. — Arthur Schopenhauer
Every man takes the limits of his own field of vision for the limits of the world. — 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
In the sphere of thought, absurdity and perversity remain the masters of the world, and their dominion is suspended only for brief periods. — 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 the world to which every man has a more unassailable title than to his own life and person. — Arthur Schopenhauer
Any foolish boy can stamp on a beetle, but all the professors in the world cannot make a beetle. — Arthur Schopenhauer
Were an Asiatic to ask me for a definition of Europe, I should be forced to answer him: It is that part of the world which is haunted by the incredible delusion that man was created out of nothing, and that his present birth is his first entrance into life. — Arthur Schopenhauer
Music is the melody whose text is the world. — Arthur Schopenhauer
Vedas are the most rewarding and the most elevating book which can be possible in the world. — Arthur Schopenhauer
Every person takes the limits of their own field of vision for the limits of the world. — Arthur Schopenhauer
We forfeit three-quarters of ourselves in order to be like other people. — Arthur Schopenhauer
If you feel irritated by the absurd remarks of two people whose conversation you happen to overhear, you should imagine that you are listening to a dialogue of two fools in a comedy. — Arthur Schopenhauer
A poet or philosopher should have no fault to find with his age if it only permits him to do his work undisturbed in his own corner; nor with his fate if the corner granted him allows of his following his vocation without having to think about other people. — Arthur Schopenhauer
What makes people hard-hearted is this, that each man has, or fancies he has, as much as he can bear in his own troubles. — Arthur Schopenhauer
With people of limited ability modesty is merely honesty. But with those who possess great talent it is hypocrisy. — Arthur Schopenhauer
Our moral virtues benefit mainly other people; intellectual virtues, on the other hand, benefit primarily ourselves; therefore the former make us universally popular, the latter unpopular. — Arthur Schopenhauer
People of Wealth and the so called upper class suffer the most from boredom. — Arthur Schopenhauer
Because people have no thoughts to deal in, they deal cards, and try and win one another's money. Idiots! — Arthur Schopenhauer
Arthur Schopenhauer Quotes About Reading
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 — Arthur Schopenhauer
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. — Arthur Schopenhauer
Many books 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. — Arthur Schopenhauer
Reading is equivalent to thinking with someone else's head instead of with one's own. — Arthur Schopenhauer
To buy books would be a good thing if we also could buy the time to read them. — Arthur Schopenhauer
It is only a man's own fundamental thoughts that have truth and life in them. For it is these that he really and completely understands. To read the thoughts of others is like taking the remains of someone else's meal, like putting on the discarded clothes of a stranger. — Arthur Schopenhauer
This is the case with many learned persons; they have read themselves stupid. — Arthur Schopenhauer
... that when you're buying books, you're optimistically thinking you're buying the time to read them.
(Paraphrase of Schopenhauer) — Arthur Schopenhauer
Scholars are those who have read in books, but thinkers, men of genius, world-enlighteners, and reformers of the human race are those who have read directly in the book of the world. — Arthur Schopenhauer
Arthur Schopenhauer Famous Quotes And Sayings
The two enemies of human happiness are pain and boredom. — Arthur Schopenhauer
The person who writes for fools is always sure of a large audience. — Arthur Schopenhauer
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. — Arthur Schopenhauer
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. — Arthur Schopenhauer
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. — Arthur Schopenhauer
Friends and acquaintances are the surest passport to fortune. — Arthur Schopenhauer
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. — Arthur Schopenhauer
Great men are like eagles, and build their nest on some lofty solitude. — Arthur Schopenhauer
After your death you will be what you were before your birth. — Arthur Schopenhauer
A man of genius can hardly be sociable, for what dialogues could indeed be so intelligent and entertaining as his own monologues? — Arthur Schopenhauer
Hatred is an affair of the heart; contempt that of the head. — Arthur Schopenhauer
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? — Arthur Schopenhauer
Will power is to the mind like a strong blind man who carries on his shoulders a lame man who can see. — Arthur Schopenhauer
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. — Arthur Schopenhauer
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. — Arthur Schopenhauer
The doctor sees all the weakness of mankind; the lawyer all the wickedness, the theologian all the stupidity. — Arthur Schopenhauer
A man can be himself only so long as he is alone. — Arthur Schopenhauer
A man can surely do what he wills to do, but cannot determine what he wills. — Arthur Schopenhauer
Treat a work of art like a prince. Let it speak to you first. — Arthur Schopenhauer
The wise have always said the same things, and fools, who are the majority have always done just the opposite. — Arthur Schopenhauer
universal compassion is the only guarantee of morality. — Arthur Schopenhauer
I am often surprised by the cleverness, and now and again by the stupidity, of my dog; and I have similar experiences with mankind. — Arthur Schopenhauer
Exaggeration of every kind is as essential to journalism as it is to dramatic art, for the object of journalism is to make events go as far as possible. — Arthur Schopenhauer
Scoundrels are always sociable. — Arthur Schopenhauer
Truth is no harlot who throws her arms round the neck of him who does not desire her; on the contrary, she is so coy a beauty that even the man who sacrifices everything to her can still not be certain of her favors. — Arthur Schopenhauer
Intellect is invisible to the man who has none. — Arthur Schopenhauer
It is only at the first encounter that a face makes its full impression on us. — Arthur Schopenhauer
To use many words to communicate few thoughts is everywhere the unmistakable sign of mediocrity. To gather much thought into few words stamps the man of genius. — Arthur Schopenhauer
A man's face as a rule says more, and more interesting things, than his mouth, for it is a compendium of everything his mouth will ever say, in that it is the monogram of all this man's thoughts and aspirations. — Arthur Schopenhauer
Politeness is to human nature what warmth is to wax. — Arthur Schopenhauer
Men best show their character in trifles, where they are not on their guard. It is in the simplest habits, that we often see the boundless egotism which pays no regard to the feelings of others and denies nothing to itself. — Arthur Schopenhauer
Noise is the most impertinent of all forms of interruption. It is not only an interruption, but also a disruption of thought. — Arthur Schopenhauer
When a man has reached a condition in which he believes that a thing must happen because he does not wish it, and that what he wishes to happen never will be, this is really the state called desperation. — Arthur Schopenhauer
The charlatan takes very different shapes according to circumstances; but at bottom he is a man who cares nothing about knowledge for its own sake, and only strives to gain the semblance of
it that he may use it for his own personal ends, which are always selfish and material. — Arthur Schopenhauer
Every nation ridicules other nations, and all are right. — Arthur Schopenhauer
The tallest oak tree once was an acorn that any pig could have swallowed. — Arthur Schopenhauer
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. — Arthur Schopenhauer
If we were not all so excessively interested in ourselves, life would be so uninteresting that none of us would be able to endure it. — Arthur Schopenhauer
Opinion is like a pendulum and obeys the same law. — Arthur Schopenhauer
The effect of music is so very much more powerful and penetrating than is that of the other arts, for these others speak only of the shadow, but music of the essence. — Arthur Schopenhauer
Vengeance taken will often tear the heart and torment the conscience. — Arthur Schopenhauer
I have long held the opinion that the amount of noise that anyone can bear undisturbed stands in inverse proportion to his mental capacity and therefore be regarded as a pretty fair measure of it. — Arthur Schopenhauer
The first forty years of life give us the text; the next thirty supply the commentary on it. — Arthur Schopenhauer
Boredom is just the reverse side of fascination. — Arthur Schopenhauer
Mankind cannot get on without a certain amount of absurdity. — Arthur Schopenhauer
Men are the devils of the earth, and the animals are its tormented souls. — Arthur Schopenhauer
The cause of laughter is simply the sudden perception of the incongruity between a concept and the real project. — Arthur Schopenhauer
Our civilized world is nothing but a great masquerade. You encounter knights, parsons, soldiers, doctors, lawyers, priests, philosophers and a thousand more: but they are not what they appear - they are merely masks... Usually, as I say, there is nothing but industrialists, businessmen and speculators concealed behind all these masks. — Arthur Schopenhauer
The first forty years of our life give the text, the next thirty furnish the commentary upon it, which enables us rightly to understand the true meaning and connection of the text with its moral and its beauties. — Arthur Schopenhauer
Truth that is naked is the most beautiful, and the simpler its expression the deeper is the impression it makes. — Arthur Schopenhauer
The present is the only reality and the only certainty. — Arthur Schopenhauer
As the biggest library if it is in disorder is not as useful as a small but well-arranged one, so you may accumulate a vast amount of knowledge but it will be of far less value than a much smaller amount if you have not thought it over for yourself. — Arthur Schopenhauer
Life Lessons by Arthur Schopenhauer
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.
Citation
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