Arthur Schopenhauer
198 quotes
Biography
"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."
"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."
"Talent hits a target no one else can hit. Genius hits a target no one else can see."
"Treat a work of art like a prince. Let it speak to you first."
"Compassion is the basis of morality."
"All truth passes through three stages: First, it is ridiculed; Second, it is violently opposed; Third, it is accepted as self-evident."
"Mostly it is loss which teaches us about the worth of things."
"Happiness consists in frequent repetition of pleasure"
"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."
"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 this world to which every man has a more unassailable title than to his own life and person."
"The person who writes for fools is always sure of a large audience."
"One should use common words to say uncommon things"
"A sense of humour is the only divine quality of man"
"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."
"Great men are like eagles, and build their nest on some lofty solitude"
"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?"
"We can regard our life as a uselessly disturbing episode in the blissful repose of nothingness."
"Buying books would be a good thing if one could also buy the time to read them; but as a rule the purchase of books is mistaken for the appropriation of their contents."
"Almost all of our sorrows spring out of our relations with other people. There is no more mistaken path to happiness than worldliness."
"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."
"Faith is like love: it does not let itself be forced."
"How very paltry and limited the normal human intellect is, and how little lucidity there is in the human consciousness, may be judged from the fact that, despite the ephemeral brevity of human life, the uncertainty of our existence and the countless enigmas which press upon us from all sides, everyone does not continually and ceaselessly philosophize, but that only the rarest of exceptions do."
"Ordinary people merely think how they shall 'spend' their time; a man of talent tries to 'use' it."
"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."
"After your death, you will be what you were before your birth."