Inspirational Quotations

Inspirational Quotes by Arthur Schopenhauer (German Philosopher)

Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860) was a German philosopher and essayist. He is one of the most prominent figures in the history of philosophy. He emphasized the primacy of the will over both reason and sensation. He was greatly influenced by Indian philosophical thought, which he held was consistent with Immanuel Kant’s philosophy in every significant respect.

Schopenhauer’s pessimistic philosophy is based on studies of Kant, Plato, and the Hindu Upaniṣads. In his principal work, Die Welt als Wille und Vorstellung (1819; The World as Will and Idea, 1883,) he contended that the will (self-consciousness in man and the unconscious forces of nature) is the only reality and that the material world is but an illusion (“idea” or “representation”) created by the will.

Schopenhauer was one of the first Western thinkers to take Indian philosophical thought seriously. Admiring the Hindu and Buddhist philosophies of forbearance and resignation, he maintained that happiness is achieved only by renouncing the will (as desired.) Asceticism and purity are the obligations of humankind to terminate the evil. Egoism, which expresses itself principally as ‘the will to live,’ must be conquered.

Schopenhauer also published Ü ber den Willen in der Natur (On the Will in Nature, 1836,) on how his philosophy was consistent with the sciences, and Die Beiden Grundprobleme der Ethik (The Two Fundamental Problems of Ethics, 1841.)

Schopenhauer’s philosophy influenced many intellectuals, including Friedrich Nietzsche, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Richard Wagner, Leo Tolstoy, and Jorge Luis Borges.

More: Wikipedia READ: Works by Arthur Schopenhauer

Wicked thoughts and worthless efforts gradually set their mark on the face, especially the eyes.
Arthur Schopenhauer
Topics: Faces, Face

The wise have always said the same things, and fools, who are the majority have always done just the opposite.
Arthur Schopenhauer
Topics: Wisdom

Gaiety alone, as it were, is the hard cash of happiness; everything else is just a promissory note.
Arthur Schopenhauer
Topics: Cheerfulness, Happiness

The difficulty is to try and teach the multitude that something can be true and untrue at the same time.
Arthur Schopenhauer
Topics: Education

Politeness is to human nature what warmth is to wax.
Arthur Schopenhauer
Topics: Politeness, Manners

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.
Arthur Schopenhauer
Topics: Nation, Nations, Nationality, Nationalism

Men best show their character in trifles, where they are not on their guard.—It is in insignificant matters, and 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
Topics: Character

The common man is not concerned about the passage of time, the man of talent is driven by it.
Arthur Schopenhauer
Topics: Time Management

A word too much always defeats its purpose.
Arthur Schopenhauer
Topics: Words

Vulgar people take huge delight in the faults and follies of great men.
Arthur Schopenhauer
Topics: Greatness

The person who writes for fools is always sure of a large audience.
Arthur Schopenhauer
Topics: Fools, Audiences, Foolishness

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
Topics: Fortune, Change, Luck, Time Management, Value of a Day

It is a great piece of folly to sacrifice the inner for the outer man.
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 to you than a much smaller amount if you have not thought it over for yourself.
Arthur Schopenhauer
Topics: Libraries, Disorder, Knowledge

He who does not enjoy solitude will not love freedom.
Arthur Schopenhauer
Topics: Joy, Love

Religion is the masterpiece of the art of animal training, for it trains people as to how they shall think.
Arthur Schopenhauer
Topics: Religion

The more unintelligent a man is, the less mysterious existence seems to him.
Arthur Schopenhauer
Topics: Intelligence, Existence, Men

Natural abilities can almost compensate for the want of every kind of cultivation, but no cultivation of the mind can make up for the want of natural abilities.
Arthur Schopenhauer
Topics: Ability

It is with trifles, and when he is off guard, that a man best reveals his character.
Arthur Schopenhauer
Topics: Character

Style is what gives value and currency to thoughts.
Arthur Schopenhauer
Topics: Style

People of Wealth and the so called upper class suffer the most from boredom.
Arthur Schopenhauer
Topics: Boredom

A man can do what he wants, but not want what he wants.
Arthur Schopenhauer
Topics: Conflict

The man never feels the want of what it never occurs to him to ask for.
Arthur Schopenhauer
Topics: Desire, Desires

Do not shorten the morning by getting up late; look upon it as the quintessence of life, and to a certain extent sacred.
Arthur Schopenhauer
Topics: Morning

Want and boredom are indeed the twin poles of human life.
Arthur Schopenhauer
Topics: Boredom

All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.
Arthur Schopenhauer
Topics: Truth, Age

Consciousness is the mere surface of our minds, of which, as of the earth, we do not know the inside, but only the crust.
Arthur Schopenhauer
Topics: Life

Every generation, no matter how paltry its character, thinks itself much wiser than the one immediately preceding it, let alone those that are more remote.
Arthur Schopenhauer
Topics: Generations

Nothing in life gives a man so much courage as the attainment or renewal of the conviction that other people regard him with favor; because it means that everyone joins to give him help and protection, which is an infinitely stronger bulwark against the ills of life than anything he can do himself.
Arthur Schopenhauer
Topics: Bravery

Every man takes the limits of his own field of vision for the limits of the world.
Arthur Schopenhauer
Topics: Perspective, Philosophy, Dreams, Vision

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