It is difficult, if not impossible, to define the limit of our reasonable desires in respect of possessions. — Arthur Schopenhauer Copy Share Image
If God made the world, I would not be that God, for the misery of the world would break my heart. — Arthur Schopenhauer Copy Share Image
If a man wants to read good books, he must make a point of avoiding bad ones; for life is short, and… — Arthur Schopenhauer Copy Share Image
A reproach can only hurt if it hits the mark. Whoever knows that he does not deserve a reproach can treat it… — Arthur Schopenhauer Copy Share Image
If a person is stupid, we excuse him by saying that he cannot help it; but if we attempted to excuse in… — Arthur Schopenhauer Copy Share Image
Life is a language in which certain truths are conveyed to us; if we could learn them in some other way, we… — Arthur Schopenhauer Copy Share Image
If God made this world, then i would not want to be the God. It is full of misery and distress that… — Arthur Schopenhauer Copy Share Image
Many books serve merely to show how many ways there are of being wrong, and how far astray you yourself would go… — Arthur Schopenhauer Copy Share Image
If anyone spends almost the whole day in reading...he gradually loses the capacity for thinking...This is the case with many learned persons;… — Arthur Schopenhauer Copy Share Image
If you feel irritated by the absurd remarks of two people whose conversation you happen to overhear, you should imagine that you… — Arthur Schopenhauer Copy Share Image
Just as the largest library, badly arranged, is not so useful as a very moderate one that is well arranged, so the… — Arthur Schopenhauer Copy Share Image
If people insist that honor is dearer than life itself, what they really mean is that existence and well-being are as nothing… — Arthur Schopenhauer Copy Share Image
For an act to be moral the intention must be based on compassion, not duty. We do something because we want to… — Arthur Schopenhauer Copy Share Image
If two men who were friends in their youth meet again when they are old, after being separated for a life-time, the… — Arthur Schopenhauer Copy Share Image
If a relationship is perfectly natural there will be a complete fusion of the happiness of both of you-owing to fellow-feeling and… — 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
Just as a stream flows smoothly on as long as it encounters no obstruction, so the nature of man and animal is… — Arthur Schopenhauer Copy Share Image
If, while hurrying ostensibly to the temple of truth, we hand the reins over to our personal interests which look aside at… — Arthur Schopenhauer Copy Share Image
Although as a rule the absurd culminates, and it seems impossible for the voice of the individual ever to penetrate through the… — Arthur Schopenhauer Copy Share Image
Every woman while she would be ready to die of shame if surprised in the act of generation, nonetheless carries her pregnancy… — Arthur Schopenhauer Copy Share Image
As the biggest library if it is in disorder is not as useful as a small but well-arranged one, so you may… — Arthur Schopenhauer Copy Share Image
A man of intellect is like an artist who gives a concert without any help from anyone else, playing on a single… — Arthur Schopenhauer Copy Share Image
If the lives of men were relieved of all need, hardship and adversity; if everything they took in hand were successful, they… — Arthur Schopenhauer Copy Share Image
The auspices for philosophy are bad if, when proceeding ostensibly on the investigation of truth, we start saying farewell to all uprightness,… — Arthur Schopenhauer Copy Share Image
If there is anything in the world that can really be called a man's property, it is surely that which is the… — Arthur Schopenhauer Copy Share Image
The man who goes up in a balloon does not feel as if he were ascending; he only sees the earth sinking… — Arthur Schopenhauer Copy Share Image
If a man sets out to hate all the miserable creatures he meets, he will not have much energy left for anything… — Arthur Schopenhauer Copy Share Image
Every hero is a Samson. The strong man succumbs to the intrigues of the weak and the many; and if in the… — Arthur Schopenhauer Copy Share Image
To buy books would be a good thing if we could also buy the time to read them; but the purchase of… — Arthur Schopenhauer Copy Share Image
If at times I have thought myself unfortunate, it is because of a confusion, an error. I have mistaken myself for someone… — Arthur Schopenhauer Copy Share Image
All pantheism must ultimately be shipwrecked on the inescapable demands of ethics, and then on the evil and suffering of the world.… — Arthur Schopenhauer Copy Share Image
Faith is like love, it cannot be forced. Therefore it is a dangerous operation if an attempt be made to introduce or… — Arthur Schopenhauer Copy Share Image
Consciousness makes the individual careful to maintain his own existence; and if this were not so, there would be no surety for… — Arthur Schopenhauer Copy Share Image
Man may have the most excellent judgment in all other matters, and yet go wrong in those which concern himself; because here… — Arthur Schopenhauer Copy Share Image
Every parting gives a foretaste of death; every remeeting a foretaste of the resurrection. That is why even people who are indifferent… — 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
“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
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
“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
[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
The eternal being..., as it lives in us, also lives in every animal. — Arthur Schopenhauer Copy Share
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
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
“[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
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
“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
“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
“In travelling where novelties of all kinds press in upon us, mental food is often supplied so rapidly from without that there is no… — Arthur Schopenhauer Copy Share
