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Arthur Schopenhauer Quotes about Philosophy

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Materialism is the philosophy of the subject who forgets to take account of himself.

Materialism is the philosophy of the subject who forgets to take account of himself.

Arthur Schopenhauer
Philosophy, Forget, Materialism
Arthur Schopenhauer (2012). “The World as Will and Representation”, p.13, Courier Corporation

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.

Arthur Schopenhauer
Philosophy, Doe, Ephemeral
Arthur Schopenhauer (2004). “On the Suffering of the World”, p.87, Penguin UK

Genius is its own reward; for the best that one is, one must necessarily be for oneself. . . . Further, genius consists in the working of the free intellect., and as a consequence the productions of genius serve no useful purpose. The work of genius may be music, philosophy, painting, or poetry; it is nothing for use or profit. To be useless and unprofitable is one of the characteristics of genius; it is their patent of nobility.

Arthur Schopenhauer
Music, Philosophy, Useless

Animals learn death first at the moment of death;...man approaches death with the knowledge it is closer every hour, and this creates a feeling of uncertainty over his life, even for him who forgets in the business of life that annihilation is awaiting him. It is for this reason chiefly that we have philosophy and religion.

Arthur Schopenhauer
Philosophy, Animal, Men

Life is short and truth works far and lives long: let us speak the truth.

Arthur Schopenhauer
Life, Philosophy, Long
Arthur Schopenhauer (2016). “The World As Will And Idea (Vol. 1 of 3)”, p.10, Kshetra Books

The cause of laughter is simply the sudden perception of the incongruity between a concept and the real project.

Arthur Schopenhauer
Laughter, Philosophy, Real

A man becomes a philosopher by reason of a certain perplexity, from which he seeks to free himself.

Arthur Schopenhauer
Philosophy, Men, Philosopher
Arthur Schopenhauer (2015). “The World as Will and Idea 1: Top of Schopenhauer”, p.41, 谷月社

In youth it is the outward aspect of things that most engages us; while in age, thought or reflection is the predominating qualityof the mind. Hence, youth is the time for poetry, and age is more inclined to philosophy. In practical affairs it is the same: a man shapes his resolutions in youth more by the impression that the outward world makes upon him; whereas, when he is old, it is thought that determines his actions.

Arthur Schopenhauer
Philosophy, Men, Reflection
Arthur Schopenhauer (2015). “Counsels and Maxims: Top of Schopenhauer”, p.93, 谷月社

For the purpose of acquiring gain, everything else is pushed aside or thrown overboard, for example, as is philosophy by the professors of philosophy.

Arthur Schopenhauer
Philosophy, Example, Purpose
"Aphorisms on the Wisdom of Life". Translated by E. Payne, Vol. 1, p. 347, 1974.

Das Ganze der Erfahrung gleicht einer Geheimschrift und die Philosophie der Entzifferung derselben. The whole of experience is like a cryptograph, and philosophy is like the deciphering of it.

Arthur Schopenhauer
Philosophy, Whole, Dies

Empirical sciences prosecuted purely for their own sake, and without philosophic tendency are like a face without eyes.

Arthur Schopenhauer
Philosophy, Eye, Science

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.

Arthur Schopenhauer
Philosophy, Given, Conclusion
Arthur Schopenhauer, E. F. J. Payne (1974). “Parerga and Paralipomena: Short Philosophical Essays”, p.106, Oxford University Press

Poetry is related to philosophy as experience is related to empirical science. Experience makes us acquainted with the phenomenon in the particular and by means of examples, science embraces the whole of phenomena by means of general conceptions. So poetry seeks to make us acquainted with the Platonic Ideas through the particular and by means of examples. Philosophy aims at teaching, as a whole and in general, the inner nature of things which expresses itself in these. One sees even here that poetry bears more the character of youth, philosophy that of old age.

Arthur Schopenhauer
Philosophy, Teaching, Character
Arthur Schopenhauer (2016). “The World As Will And Idea (Vol. 3 of 3)”, p.98, Kshetra Books

Descartes is rightly regarded as the father of modern philosophy primarily and generally because he helped the faculty of reason to stand on its own feet by teaching men to use their brains in place whereof the Bible, on the one hand, and Aristotle, on the other, had previously served.

Arthur Schopenhauer
Father, Philosophy, Teaching
Arthur Schopenhauer, E. F. J. Payne (1974). “Parerga and Paralipomena: Short Philosophical Essays”, p.3, Oxford University Press

To repeat abstractly, universally, and distinctly in concepts the whole inner nature of the world , and thus to deposit it as a reflected image in permanent concepts always ready for the faculty of reason , this and nothing else is philosophy.

Arthur Schopenhauer
Philosophy, World, Reason
"The World as Will and Representation". Book by Arthur Schopenhauer, Vol. I, §68, 1819.

The auspices for philosophy are bad if, when proceeding ostensibly on the investigation of truth, we start saying farewell to all uprightness, honesty and sincerity, and are intent only on passing ourselves off for what we are not. We then assume, like those three sophists [Fichte, Schelling and Hegel], first a false pathos, then an affected and lofty earnestness, then an air of infinite superiority, in order to impose where we despair of ever being able to convince.

Arthur Schopenhauer
Honesty, Philosophy, Farewell
"Parerga and Paralipomena" by Arthur Schopenhauer, translated by E. Payne, Vol. 1, (p. 22), 1974.

It is the courage to make a clean breast of it in the face of every question that makes the philosopher. He must be like Sophocles' Oedipus, who, seeking enlightenment concerning his terrible fate, pursues his indefatigable inquiry even though he divines that appalling horror awaits him in the answer. But most of us carry with us the Jocasta in our hearts, who begs Oedipus, for God's sake, not to inquire further.

Arthur Schopenhauer
Philosophy, Heart, Fate
Letter to Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, November 1819.

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