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Arthur Schopenhauer Quotes

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The majority of men... are not capable of thinking, but only of believing, and... are not accessible to reason, but only to authority.

The majority of men... are not capable of thinking, but only of believing, and... are not accessible to reason, but only to authority.

Arthur Schopenhauer
Believe, Men, Thinking

It is difficult to find happiness within oneself, but it is impossible to find it anywhere else.

Arthur Schopenhauer
Finding Happiness, Impossible, Difficult
Arthur Schopenhauer (2016). “101 Facts of life”, p.13, Publishdrive

A pessimist is an optimist in full possession of the facts.

Arthur Schopenhauer
Facts, Pessimist, Optimist

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
Inspirational, Witty, Truth
Arthur Schopenhauer (2016). “101 Facts of life”, p.4, Publishdrive

Just remember, once you're over the hill you begin to pick up speed.

Arthur Schopenhauer
Birthday, Congratulations, Age

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
Inspirational, Being Yourself, Freedom
Arthur Schopenhauer (2015). “Counsels and Maxims”, p.36, Arthur Schopenhauer

Talent hits a target no one else can hit; Genius hits a target no one else can see.

Arthur Schopenhauer
Inspirational, Life, Beautiful
Arthur Schopenhauer (2016). “101 Facts of life”, p.2, Publishdrive

We seldom think of what we have but always of what we lack. Therefore, rather than grateful, we are bitter.

Arthur Schopenhauer
Gratitude, Grateful, Thinking

What people commonly call fate is mostly their own stupidity.

Arthur Schopenhauer
Funny, Fate, Destiny

Mostly it is loss which teaches us about the worth of things.

Arthur Schopenhauer
Death, Loss, Teach
Arthur Schopenhauer (2016). “101 Facts of life”, p.6, Publishdrive

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
Inspirational, Self, Ephemeral

A high degree of intellect tends to make a man unsocial.

Arthur Schopenhauer
Men, Degrees, Intellect
Arthur Schopenhauer (2016). “The Wisdom of Life”, p.18, Cosimo Classics

Our life is a loan received from death with sleep as the daily interest on this loan.

Arthur Schopenhauer
Sleep, Life Is, Loan
Arthur Schopenhauer (2004). “On the Suffering of the World”, p.47, Penguin UK

Man is never happy, but spends his whole life in striving after something which he thinks will make him so.

Arthur Schopenhauer
Men, Thinking, Strive
Arthur Schopenhauer (2015). “The Essays of Arthur Schopenhauer - Studies in Pessimism (illustrated)”, p.20, Full Moon Publications

Education perverts the mind since we are directly opposing the natural development of our mind by obtaining ideas first and observations last. This is why so few men of learning have such sound common sense as is quite common among the illiterate.

Arthur Schopenhauer
Men, Ideas, Common Sense
Arthur Schopenhauer (2016). “The Essays of Arthur Schopenhauer (illustrated)”, p.38, Full Moon Publications

To overcome difficulties is to experience the full delight of existence.

Arthur Schopenhauer
Overcoming, Delight, Coping
Arthur Schopenhauer (2015). “The Essays of Arthur Schopenhauer - Counsels and maxims (illustrated)”, p.39, Full Moon Publications

Life swings like a pendulum backward and forward between pain and boredom.

Arthur Schopenhauer
Pain, Blessing, Swings
Arthur Schopenhauer (2016). “101 Facts of life”, p.66, Publishdrive

No rose without a thorn but many a thorn without a rose.

Arthur Schopenhauer
Rose
Arthur Schopenhauer, E. F. J. Payne (1974). “Parerga and Paralipomena: Short Philosophical Essays”, p.648, Oxford University Press

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
Pride, Racism, Teeth
Arthur Schopenhauer (2007). “Parerga and Paralipomena: A Collection of Philosophical Essays”, p.60, Cosimo, Inc.

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

Arthur Schopenhauer
Art, Fear, Philosophical
Arthur Schopenhauer (2016). “101 Facts of life”, p.30, Publishdrive

The shortness of life, so often lamented, may be the best thing about it.

Arthur Schopenhauer
Wisdom, May, Being The Best
Arthur Schopenhauer (2016). “101 Facts of life”, p.46, Publishdrive

Thus, the task is not so much to see what no one yet has seen, but to think what nobody yet has thought about that which everybody sees.

Arthur Schopenhauer
Thinking, Tasks
Arthur Schopenhauer (2016). “101 Facts of life”, p.24, Publishdrive

You are free to do what you want, but you are not free to want what you want.

Arthur Schopenhauer
Want, Free Will, What You Want

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
Writing, Men, Genius
Arthur Schopenhauer (2012). “Collected Essays of Arthur Schopenhauer”, p.351, Simon and Schuster

Consider the Koran... this wretched book was sufficient to start a world-religion, to satisfy the metaphysical need of countless millions for twelve hundred years, to become the basis of their morality and of a remarkable contempt for death, and also to inspire them to bloody wars and the most extensive conquests. In this book we find the saddest and poorest form of theism. Much may be lost in translation, but I have not been able to discover in it one single idea of value.

Arthur Schopenhauer
War, Book, Years
"The World as Will and Representation" by Arthur Schopenhauer, translated by E. Payne, Vol. II, Ch. XVII, 1958.

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