Arthur Schopenhauer Quotes and Quotations

Arthur Schopenhauer (22 February 1788 – 21 September 1860) was a German philosopher best known for his book, The World as Will and Representation (German: Die Welt als Wille und Vorstellung), in which he claimed that our world is driven by a continually dissatisfied will, continually seeking satisfaction. He became a student at the University of Göttingen in 1809. There he studied metaphysics and psychology under Gottlob Ernst Schulze, the author of Aenesidemus, who advised him to concentrate on Plato and Immanuel Kant. In Berlin, from 1811 to 1812, he had attended lectures by the prominent post-Kantian philosopher Johann Gottlieb Fichte and the theologian Friedrich Schleiermacher.

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Here is his Quotes,

 

1.  Every possession and every happiness is but lent by chance for an uncertain time, and may therefore be demanded back the next hour.

 

2.  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.

3. All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.

4. With people of limited ability modesty is merely honesty. But with those who possess great talent it is hypocrisy.

5.  Treat a work of art like a prince. Let it speak to you first.
 

6. After your death you will be what you were before your birth.

7.  A man's delight in looking forward to and hoping for some particular satisfaction is a part of the pleasure flowing out of it, enjoyed in advance. But this is afterward deducted, for the more we look forward to anything the less we enjoy it when it comes.

8.  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.

9. Patriotism, when it wants to make itself felt in the domain of learning, is a dirty fellow who should be thrown out of doors.

10. There is no doubt that life is given us, not to be enjoyed, but to be overcome; to be got over.

11. Satisfaction consists in freedom from pain, which is the positive element of life.

12. A man can be himself only so long as he is alone.

13. The greatest of follies is to sacrifice health for any other kind of happiness.

14. 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.

15. Rascals are always sociable, mores’ the pity! And the chief sign that a man has any nobility in his character is the little pleasure he takes in others' company.

18. Men are by nature merely indifferent to one another; but women are by nature enemies.

19. Because people have no thoughts to deal in, they deal cards, and try and win one another's money. Idiots!

20. Because people have no thoughts to deal in, they deal cards, and try and win one another's money. Idiots!

21. Honor means that a man is not exceptional; fame, that he is. Fame is something which must be won; honor, only something which must not be lost.

22. To find out your real opinion of someone, judge the impression you have when you first see a letter from them.

23. Almost all of our sorrows spring out of our relations with other people.

24. A man can do what he wants, but not want what he wants.

25. 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.

26. It is a clear gain to sacrifice pleasure in order to avoid pain.

27. Great men are like eagles, and build their nest on some lofty solitude.

28. The two enemies of human happiness are pain and boredom.

29. The difficulty is to try and teach the multitude that something can be true and untrue at the same time.

30. The longer a man's fame is likely to last; the longer it will be in coming.

31. Will power is to the mind like a strong blind man who carries on his shoulders a lame man who can see.

32. The wise have always said the same things, and fools, who are the majority, have always done just the opposite.

33. 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.

34. 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.

35. In the sphere of thought, absurdity and perversity remain the masters of the world, and their dominion is suspended only for brief periods.

36. 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.

37. Boredom is just the reverse side of fascination: both depend on being outside rather than inside a situation, and one leads to the other.

38.  Every person takes the limits of their own field of vision for the limits of the world.

39. 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.

40. In action a great heart is the chief qualification. In work, a great head.

41. In our monogamous part of the world, to marry means to halve one's rights and double one's duties.

42. The greatest achievements of the human mind are generally received with distrust.

43. The brain may be regarded as a kind of parasite of the organism, a pensioner, as it were, who dwells with the body.

44. The more unintelligent a man is, the less mysterious existence seems to him.

 45. Wealth is like sea-water; the more we drink, the thirstier we become; and the same is true of fame.

46. Friends and acquaintances are the surest passport to fortune.

47. 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.

48. Wicked thoughts and worthless efforts gradually set their mark on the face, especially the eyes.

49. Suffering by nature or chance never seems so painful as suffering inflicted on us by the arbitrary will of another.

50. National character is only another name for the particular form which the littleness, perversity and baseness of mankind take in every country. Every nation mocks at other nations, and all are right.

51. The word of man is the most durable of all material.

52. To free a person from error is to give, and not to take away.

53. The doctor sees all the weakness of mankind; the lawyer all the wickedness, the theologian all the stupidity.

54. 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.

55. Great minds are related to the brief span of time during which they live as great buildings are to a little square in which they stand: you cannot see them in all their magnitude because you are standing too close to them.

56. If we were not all so interested in ourselves, life would be so uninteresting that none of us would be able to endure it.

57. We forfeit three-quarters of ourselves in order to be like other people.

58. The fundament upon which all our knowledge and learning rests is the inexplicable.

59. The first forty years of life give us the text; the next thirty supply the commentary on it.

60. Journalists are like dogs, when ever anything moves they begin to bark.

61. 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.

62. Obstinacy is the result of the will forcing itself into the place of the intellect.

63. Reading is equivalent to thinking with someone else's head instead of with one's own.

64. The man never feels the want of what it never occurs to him to ask for.

Life Quotes

Fear not

"I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain." - Frank Herbert

Trouble

"The trouble is that people seem to expect happiness in life. I can't imagine why; but they do. They are unhappy before they marry, and they imagine to themselves that the reason of their unhappiness will be removed when they are married. When it isn't they blame the other person, which is clearly absurd. I believe that is what generally starts the trouble." - Nancy Mitford

What Government purpose

"The purpose of government is to enable the people of a nation to live in safety and happiness. Government exists for the interests of the governed, not for the governors." - Thomas Jefferson

Seek and you will find

"When one door of happiness closes, another opens; but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us." - Helen Keller

Cheerfulness

"Cheerfulness is that quality which enables one to make others happy. It takes its origin half in personal goodness, and half in the belief of the personal goodness of others." - Fulton Sheen

20 Quotes about Fear and Death

1. "No power is strong enough to be lasting if it labours under the weight of fear." - Cicero
2. "There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve: the fear of failure." - Paulo Coelho
3. "Don't give in to your fears. If you do, you won't be able to talk to your heart." - Paulo Coelho
4. "You can conquer almost any fear if you will only make up your mind to do so. For remember, fear doesn't exist anywhere except in the mind." - Dale Carnegie
5. "If you die you're completely happy and your soul somewhere lives on. I’m not afraid of dying. Total peace after death, becoming someone else is the best hope I've got." - Kurt Cobain
6. "A coward dies a thousand deaths... a soldier dies but once." - William Shakespeare
7. "We should never negotiate out of fear, but we should never fear to negotiate." - John F. Kennedy
8. "Every man's life ends the same way. It is only the detail of how he lived and how he died that distinguishes one man from another." - Ernest Hemingway
9. "I believe that every single event in life happens in an opportunity to choose love over fear." - Oprah Winfrey
10. "Fear not death for the sooner we die, the longer we shall be immortal." - Benjamin Franklin
11. "An insincere and evil friend is more to be feared than a wild beast; a wild beast may wound your body, but an evil friend will wound your mind." - Buddha
12. "Pride is an admission of weakness; it secretly fears all competition and dreads all rivals." - Fulton Sheen
13. "A man who fears suffering is already suffering from what he fears." - Michel de Montaigne
14. "The best remedy for those who are afraid, lonely or unhappy is to go outside, somewhere where they can be quiet, alone with the heavens, nature and God. Because only then does one feel that all is as it should be." - Anne Frank
15. "Love never dies a natural death. It dies because we don't know how to replenish its source. It dies of blindness and errors and betrayals. It dies of illness and wounds; it dies of weariness, of withering, of tarnishing." - Anais Nin
16. "I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain." - Frank Herbert
17. "The trouble is that people seem to expect happiness in life. I can't imagine why; but they do. They are unhappy before they marry, and they imagine to themselves that the reason of their unhappiness will be removed when they are married. When it isn't they blame the other person, which is clearly absurd. I believe that is what generally starts the trouble." - Nancy Mitford
18. "The purpose of government is to enable the people of a nation to live in safety and happiness. Government exists for the interests of the governed, not for the governors." - Thomas Jefferson
19. "When one door of happiness closes, another opens; but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us." - Helen Keller
20. "Cheerfulness is that quality which enables one to make others happy. It takes its origin half in personal goodness, and half in the belief of the personal goodness of others." - Fulton Sheen

19 Motivational Quotes

1. People ask the difference between a leader and a boss. The leader leads, and the boss drives.  Author: Theodore Roosevelt
2. It is better to lead from behind and to put others in front, especially when you celebrate victory when nice things occur. You take the front line when there is danger. Then people will appreciate your leadership.  Author: Nelson Mandela
3. Ultimately property rights and personal rights are the same thing.  Author: Calvin Coolidge
4. Property is surely a right of mankind as real as liberty.  Author: John Adams
5. Collecting more taxes than is absolutely necessary is legalized robbery.  Author: Calvin Coolidge
6. Advertising is legalized lying. Author: H. G. Wells
7. We never know the love of a parent till we become parents ourselves.  Author: Henry Ward Beecher
8. Fear not those who argue but those who dodge.  Author: Dale Carnegie
9. The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man who lives fully is prepared to die at any time.  Author: Mark Twain
10. It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change.  Author: Charles Darwin
11. Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.  Author: Nelson Mandela
12. I do not want a husband who honours me as a queen, if he does not love me as a woman.  Author: Elizabeth I
13. To know is to know that you know nothing. That is the meaning of true knowledge.  Author: Socrates
14. Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.  Author: Abraham Lincoln
15. One man with a head on his shoulders is worth a dozen without.  Author: Elizabeth I
16. Experience - the wisdom that enables us to recognise in an undesirable old acquaintance the folly that we have already embraced.  Author: Ambrose Bierce
17. There is no success without hardship.  Author: Sophocles
18. The thing always happens that you really believe in; and the belief in a thing makes it happen.  Author: Frank Lloyd Wright
19. Governing a great nation is like cooking a small fish - too much handling will spoil it.  Author: Lao Tzu

Inspirational Quotes

Research has shown that the best way to be happy is to make each day happy.  Author: Deepak Chopra

Always laugh when you can. It is cheap medicine.  Author: Lord Byron

Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.  Author: Mahatma Gandhi

Action may not always bring happiness; but there is no happiness without action.  Author: Benjamin Disraeli

Happiness doesn’t depend on any external conditions, it is governed by our mental attitude.  Author: Dale Carnegie

To keep the body in good health is a duty... otherwise we shall not be able to keep our mind strong and clear.  Author: Buddha

Cheerfulness is the best promoter of health and is as friendly to the mind as to the body.  Author: Joseph Addison

We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.  Author: Martin Luther King, Jr.

Never let the future disturb you. You will meet it, if you have to, with the same weapons of reason which today arm you against the present.  Author: Marcus Aurelius

Tears are often the telescope by which men see far into heaven.  Author: Henry Ward Beecher

Parents can only give good advice or put them on the right paths, but the final forming of a person’s character lies in their own hands.  Author: Anne Frank

I am prepared for the worst, but hope for the best.  Author: Benjamin Disraeli

The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched - they must be felt with the heart.  Author: Helen Keller

All the commandments: You shall not commit adultery, you shall not kill, you shall not steal, and you shall not covet, and so on, are summed up in this single command: You must love your neighbour as yourself.  Author: Jesus Christ

I hated every minute of training, but I said, "Don’t quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion."  Author: Muhammad Ali

A lie told often enough becomes the truth.  Author: Vladimir Lenin

Health is the greatest possession. Contentment is the greatest treasure. Confidence is the greatest friend. Non-being is the greatest joy.  Author: Lao Tzu

If you know the enemy and know yourself you need not fear the results of a hundred battles.  Author: Sun Tzu