Our first ideas of life are generally taken from fiction rather than fact. — Arthur Schopenhauer Copy Share Image
In reading, the mind is, in fact, only the playground of another's thoughts. — Arthur Schopenhauer Copy Share Image
The first rule for a good style is to have something to say; in fact, this in itself is almost enough. — Arthur Schopenhauer Copy Share Image
Reasonable and vicious are quite consistent with each other, in fact, only through their union are great and far-reaching crimes possible — Arthur Schopenhauer Copy Share Image
That arithmetic is the basest of all mental activities is proved by the fact that it is the only one that can… — Arthur Schopenhauer Copy Share Image
All the cruelty and torment of which the world is full is in fact merely the necessary result of the totality of… — Arthur Schopenhauer Copy Share Image
It is a curious fact that in bad days we can very vividly recall the good time that is now no more;… — Arthur Schopenhauer Copy Share Image
The inexpressible depth of music, so easy to understand and yet so inexplicable, is due to the fact that it reproduces all… — Arthur Schopenhauer Copy Share Image
That the outer man is a picture of the inner, and the face an expression and revelation of the whole character, is… — Arthur Schopenhauer Copy Share Image
How very paltry and limited the normal human intellect is, and how little lucidity there is in the human consciousness, may be… — Arthur Schopenhauer Copy Share Image
Optimism is not only a false but also a pernicious doctrine, for it presents life as a desirable state and man's happiness… — Arthur Schopenhauer Copy Share Image
Virtue is as little to be acquired by learning as genius; nay, the idea is barren, and is only to be employed as an… — Arthur Schopenhauer Copy Share Image
“In accordance with such zeal, by reducing the external world to a matter of faith, he wanted merely to open a little door for… — Arthur Schopenhauer Copy Share Image
That human life must be some kind of mistake is sufficiently proved by the simple observation that man is a compound of needs which… — Arthur Schopenhauer Copy Share Image
“Imitation and custom are the spring of almost all human action. The cause of it is that men fight shy of all and any… — Arthur Schopenhauer Copy Share Image
[T]he appropriate form of address between man and man ought to be, not monsieur, sir, but fellow sufferer, compagnon de miseres. — Arthur Schopenhauer Copy Share Image
The eternal being..., as it lives in us, also lives in every animal. — Arthur Schopenhauer Copy Share Image
there are very few who can think, but every man wants to have an opinion; and what remains but to take it ready-made from… — Arthur Schopenhauer Copy Share Image
It is not what things are objectively and in themselves, but what they are for us, in our way of looking at them, that… — Arthur Schopenhauer Copy Share Image
“[Materialism] seeks the primary and most simple state of matter, and then tries to develop all the others from it; ascending from mere mechanism,… — Arthur Schopenhauer Copy Share Image
In order to increase his pleasures, man has intentionally added to the number and pressure of his needs, which in their original state were… — Arthur Schopenhauer Copy Share Image
“For the will, as that which is common to all, is for that reason also common: consequently, every vehement emergence of will is common,… — Arthur Schopenhauer Copy Share Image
“Alles Urdenken geschieht in Bildern: darum ist die Phantasie ein so nothwendiges Werkzeug desselben, und werden phantasielose Köpfe nie etwas Großes leisten, - es… — Arthur Schopenhauer Copy Share Image