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
Hatred is an affair of the heart; contempt that of the head.
—Arthur Schopenhauer
With people with only modest ability, modesty is mere honesty; but with those who possess great talent, it is hypocrisy.
—Arthur Schopenhauer
Topics: Love, Hypocrisy, Talent, People, Humility, Modesty
There is no doubt that life is given us, not to be enjoyed, but to be overcome—to be got over.
—Arthur Schopenhauer
Topics: Adversity
Great minds are like eagles, and build their nest in some lofty solitude.
—Arthur Schopenhauer
Topics: Mind, Greatness, Greatness & Great Things
The two foes of human happiness are pain and boredom
—Arthur Schopenhauer
Topics: Boredom, Happiness, One liners, Pain
A man can be himself only so long as he is alone.
—Arthur Schopenhauer
Topics: Solitude
The man never feels the want of what it never occurs to him to ask for.
—Arthur Schopenhauer
Topics: Desire, Desires
Patriotism, when it wants to make itself felt in the domain of learning, is a dirty fellow who should be thrown out of doors.
—Arthur Schopenhauer
Topics: Patriotism
Politeness is to human nature what warmth is to wax.
—Arthur Schopenhauer
Topics: Politeness, Manners
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: Value of a Day, Change, Fortune, Time Management, Luck
There is no vice, of which a man can be guilty, no meanness, no shabbiness, no unkindness, which excited so much indignation among his contemporaries, friends and neighbors, as his success. This is the one unpardonable crime, which reason cannot defend, nor [can] humility mitigate.
—Arthur Schopenhauer
Topics: Vice, Humility, Reason, Friend, Success, Kind, Kindness
It is a great piece of folly to sacrifice the inner for the outer man.
—Arthur Schopenhauer
With people of limited ability modesty is merely honesty. But with those who possess great talent it is hypocrisy.
—Arthur Schopenhauer
Topics: Hypocrisy
If people insist that honor is dearer than life itself, what they really mean is that existence and well-being are as nothing compared with other people’s opinions. Of course, this may be only an exaggerated way of stating the prosaic truth that reputation, that is, the opinion others have of us, is indispensable if we are to make any progress in the world.
—Arthur Schopenhauer
Topics: Honor
Just as the largest library, badly arranged, is not so useful as a very moderate one that is well arranged, so the greatest amount of knowledge, if not elaborated by our own thoughts, is worth much less than a far smaller volume that has been abundantly and repeatedly thought over.
—Arthur Schopenhauer
Topics: Research
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: Age, Truth
The longer a man’s fame is likely to last, the longer it will be in coming.
—Arthur Schopenhauer
Topics: Fame
Talent hits a target no one else can hit; Genius hits a target no one else can see.
—Arthur Schopenhauer
Wicked thoughts and worthless efforts gradually set their mark on the face, especially the eyes.
—Arthur Schopenhauer
Topics: Faces, Face
My desire is for wisdom, not for the exercise of the will. The will is the strong blind man who carries on his shoulders the lame man who can see.
—Arthur Schopenhauer
Topics: Wisdom, Willpower, Will Power, Will
There is no absurdity so palpable but that it may be firmly planted in the human head if you only begin to inculcate it before the age of five, by constantly repeating it with an air of great solemnity.
—Arthur Schopenhauer
A man can do what he wants, but not want what he wants.
—Arthur Schopenhauer
Topics: Conflict
We forfeit three-fourths of ourselves in order to be like other people.
—Arthur Schopenhauer
Topics: Individuality, Self-respect, Imitation, Self-Discovery
The closing years of life are like the end of a masquerade party, when the masks are dropped.
—Arthur Schopenhauer
Topics: Age
To desire immortality is to desire the eternal perpetuation of a great mistake
—Arthur Schopenhauer
Topics: Immortality
The fundament upon which all our knowledge and learning rests is the inexplicable.
—Arthur Schopenhauer
Topics: Mystery
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, Knowledge, Disorder
Every man takes the limits of his own field of vision for the limits of the world.
—Arthur Schopenhauer
Topics: Philosophy, Vision, Perspective, Dreams
In estimating the greatness of great men, the inverted law of the physical stands for the intellectual and spiritual nature—the former is lessened by distance, the latter increased.
—Arthur Schopenhauer
Topics: Greatness
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
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