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Arthur Schopenhauer Quotes - Page 12

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If the world were a paradise of luxury and ease, a land flowing with milk and honey, where every Jack obtained his Jill at once and without any difficulty, men would either die of boredom or hang themselves; or there

If the world were a paradise of luxury and ease, a land flowing with milk and honey, where every Jack obtained his Jill at once and without any difficulty, men would either die of boredom or hang themselves; or there would be wars, massacres, and murders; so that in the end mankind would inflict more suffering on itself than it has now to accept at the hands of Nature.

Arthur Schopenhauer
War, Men, Milk And Honey
Arthur Schopenhauer (2015). “The Suffering of the World”, p.6, Simon and Schuster

The scenes of our life are like pictures done in rough mosaic. Looked at close, they produce no effect. There is nothing beautiful to be found in them, unless you stand some distance off.

Arthur Schopenhauer
Life, Beautiful, Distance
Arthur Schopenhauer (2015). “Studies in Pessimism”, p.33, Arthur Schopenhauer

Necessity is the constant scourge of the lower classes, ennui of the higher ones.

Arthur Schopenhauer
Class, Ennui, Constant

I observed once to Goethe that when a friend is with us we do not think the same of him as when he is away. He replied, "Yes! because the absent friend is yourself, and he exists only in your head; whereas the friend who is present has an individuality of his own, and moves according to laws of his own, which cannot always be in accordance with those which you form for yourself.

Arthur Schopenhauer
Moving, Thinking, Law
Arthur Schopenhauer (1896). “The Art of Controversy: And Other Posthumous Papers”

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.

Arthur Schopenhauer
Sleep, Insomnia, Redemption
Arthur Schopenhauer (2007). “Parerga and Paralipomena: A Collection of Philosophical Essays”, Cosimo, Inc.

A man who has no mental needs, because his intellect is of the narrow and normal amount, is, in the strict sense of the word, what is called a philistine.

Arthur Schopenhauer
Men, Needs, Normal
Arthur Schopenhauer (2015). “The Essays of Arthur Schopenhauer - The Wisdom of Life (illustrated)”, p.33, Full Moon Publications

Pride is an established conviction of one’s own paramount worth in some particular respect, while vanity is the desire of rousing such a conviction in others, and it is generally accompanied by the secret hope of ultimately coming to the same conviction oneself. Pride works from within; it is the direct appreciation of oneself. Vanity is the desire to arrive at this appreciation indirectly, from without.

Arthur Schopenhauer
Appreciation, Pride, Vanity
Arthur Schopenhauer (2012). “Collected Essays of Arthur Schopenhauer”, p.444, Simon and Schuster

No one knows what capacities for doing and suffering he has in himself, until something comes to rouse them to activity: just as in a pond of still water, lying there like a mirror, there is no sign of the roar and thunder with which it can leap from the precipice, and yet remain what it is; or again, rise high in the air as a fountain. When water is as cold as ice, you can have no idea of the latent warmth contained in it.

Arthur Schopenhauer
Lying, Mirrors, Air
Arthur Schopenhauer (2015). “Studies in Pessimism: Top of Schopenhauer”, p.30, 谷月社

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

Arthur Schopenhauer
Character, Men, Littles
Arthur Schopenhauer (2015). “Counsels and Maxims: Top of Schopenhauer”, p.26, 谷月社

Everything that happens, happens of necessity.

Arthur Schopenhauer
Happens
Arthur Schopenhauer (2016). “Arthur Schopenhauer: The World as Will and Presentation”, p.539, Routledge

The problem with Germans is that they look in the clouds for what lies at their feet.

Arthur Schopenhauer
Lying, Clouds, Feet

A major difficulty in translation is that a word in one language seldom has a precise equivalent in another one.

Arthur Schopenhauer
Language, Difficulty, Translations

Men of learning are those who have read the contents of books. Thinkers, geniuses, and those who have enlightened the world and furthered the race of men, are those who have made direct use of the book of the world.

Arthur Schopenhauer
Book, Men, Race
Arthur Schopenhauer (2015). “Essays of Schopenhauer”, p.83, Sheba Blake Publishing

Most men are so thoroughly subjective that nothing really interests them but themselves.

Arthur Schopenhauer
Men, Interest, Subjective
Arthur Schopenhauer (2015). “Counsels and Maxims”, p.99, Arthur Schopenhauer

A good supply of resignation is of the first importance in providing for the journey of life.

Arthur Schopenhauer
Life, Journey, Religion
Arthur Schopenhauer (2012). “Collected Essays of Arthur Schopenhauer”, p.318, Simon and Schuster

In order to increase his pleasures, man has intentionally added to the number and pressure of his needs, which in their original state were not much more difficult to satisfy than those of the brute. Hence luxury in all its forms; delicate food, the use of tobacco and opium, spirituous liquors, fine clothes, and the thousand and one things that he considers necessary to his existence.

Arthur Schopenhauer
Men, Clothes, Numbers
Arthur Schopenhauer (2015). “The Essays of Arthur Schopenhauer - Studies in Pessimism (illustrated)”, p.8, Full Moon Publications

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; because only through ordering what you know by comparing every truth with every other truth can you take complete possession of your knowledge and get it into your power. You can think about only what you know, so you ought to learn something; on the other hand, you can know only what you have thought about.

Arthur Schopenhauer
Thinking, Hands, Library
"Counsels and Maxims". Vol. 2, Ch. 22, § 257 "On Thinking for Yourself" as translated in "Essays and Aphorisms" by R. J. Hollingdale, 1970.

The beard, being a half-mask, should be forbidden by the police - It is, moreover, as a sexual symbol in the middle of the face, obscene: that is why it pleases women.

Arthur Schopenhauer
Police, Half, Beard

Memory works like the collection glass in the Camera obscura: it gathers everything together and therewith produces a far more beautiful picture than was present originally.

Arthur Schopenhauer
Beautiful, Memories, Glasses
"Aphorisms on the Wisdom of Life". Book by Arthur Schopenhauer, 1851.

The vanity of existence is revealed in the whole form existence assumes: in the infiniteness of time and space contrasted with the finiteness of the individual in both; in the fleeting present as the sole form in which actuality exists; in the contingency and relativity of all things; in continual becoming without being; in continual desire without satisfaction; in the continual frustration of striving of which life consists. . . Time is that by virtue of which everything becomes nothingness in our hands and loses all real value.

Arthur Schopenhauer
Real, Frustration, Vanity

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.

Arthur Schopenhauer
Mean, Reality, Men
Arthur Schopenhauer (2015). “the Wisdom of Life: Top of Schopenhauer”, p.43, 谷月社

What makes people hard-hearted is this, that each man has, or fancies he has, as much as he can bear in his own troubles.

Arthur Schopenhauer
Men, People, Fancy
Arthur Schopenhauer (2014). “Suffering, Suicide and Immortality: Eight Essays from The Parerga”, p.41, Courier Corporation

He who can see truly in the midst of general infatuation is like a man whose watch keeps good time, when all clocks in the town in which he lives are wrong. He alone knows the right time; what use is that to him?

Arthur Schopenhauer
Men, Watches, Use
Arthur Schopenhauer (2015). “Counsels and Maxims”, p.102, Arthur Schopenhauer

That which knows all things and is known by none is the subject.

Arthur Schopenhauer
Subjects, All Things, Knows
Arthur Schopenhauer (2016). “The World As Will And Idea: 3 vols in 1 [unabridged]”, p.2, Kshetra Books

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

Arthur Schopenhauer
Sad, Men, Want

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