A happy life is impossible; the best that a man can attain is a heroic life. — Arthur Schopenhauer Copy Share Image
“It is very necessary that a man should be apprised early in life that it is a masquerade in which he finds… — Arthur Schopenhauer Copy Share Image
Man is never happy, but spends his whole life in striving after something which he thinks will make him so. — Arthur Schopenhauer Copy Share Image
...In the blessings as well as in the ills of life, less depends upon what befalls us than upon the way in… — Arthur Schopenhauer Copy Share Image
Every state of welfare, every feeling of satisfaction, is negative in its character; that is to say, it consists in freedom from… — Arthur Schopenhauer Copy Share Image
“to be superior (überlegen) to others in real life, the indispensable condition is to be thoughtful and deliberate (überlegt), in other words,… — Arthur Schopenhauer Copy Share Image
Each day is a little life: every waking and rising a little birth, every fresh morning a little youth, every going to… — Arthur Schopenhauer Copy Share Image
Consciousness is the mere surface of our minds, of which, as of the earth, we do not know the inside, but only… — Arthur Schopenhauer Copy Share Image
“Only that which is innate is genuine and will hold water; and every man who wants to achieve something, whether in practical… — Arthur Schopenhauer Copy Share Image
“it seems to me that the idea of dignity can be applied only in an ironical sense to a being whose will… — Arthur Schopenhauer Copy Share Image
“... life may be compared to a piece of embroidery, of which, during the first half of his time, a man gets… — Arthur Schopenhauer Copy Share Image
“If you try to imagine as nearly as you can what an amount of misery, pain, and suffering of every kind the… — Arthur Schopenhauer Copy Share Image
It is only a man's own fundamental thoughts that have truth and life in them. For it is these that he really… — Arthur Schopenhauer Copy Share Image
We see in tragedy the noblest men, after a long conflict and suffering, finally renounce forever all the pleasure of life and… — Arthur Schopenhauer Copy Share Image
“Life is never beautiful, but only the pictures of life are so in the transfiguring mirror of art or poetry; especially in… — 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… — Arthur Schopenhauer Copy Share Image
The actual life of a thought lasts only until it reaches the point of speech...As soon as our thinking has found words… — Arthur Schopenhauer Copy Share Image
“Only by the aid of language does reason bring about its most important achievements, namely the harmonious and consistent action of several… — Arthur Schopenhauer Copy Share Image
“Looking at the turmoil of life from this standpoint we find all occupied with its want and misery, exerting all their strength… — Arthur Schopenhauer Copy Share Image
In early youth, as we contemplate our coming life, we are like children in a theatre before the curtain is raised, sitting… — Arthur Schopenhauer Copy Share Image
The vanity of existence is revealed in the whole form existence assumes: in the infiniteness of time and space contrasted with the… — Arthur Schopenhauer Copy Share Image
“Human life must be some kind of mistake. The truth of this will be sufficiently obvious if we only remember that man… — Arthur Schopenhauer Copy Share Image
“The ultimate aim of all love affairs ... is more important than all other aims in man's life; and therefore it is… — Arthur Schopenhauer Copy Share Image
Life is a task to be done. It is a fine thing to say defunctus est; it means that the man has… — Arthur Schopenhauer Copy Share Image
Do not shorten the morning by getting up late; look upon it as the quintessence of life, as to a certain extent… — Arthur Schopenhauer Copy Share Image
The life of every individual is really always a tragedy, but gone through in detail, it has the character of a comedy. — Arthur Schopenhauer Copy Share Image
Music is the answer to the mystery of life. The most profound of all the arts, It expresses the deepest thoughts of… — Arthur Schopenhauer Copy Share Image
Happiness of any given life is to be measured, not by its joys and pleasures, but by the extent to which it… — Arthur Schopenhauer Copy Share Image
It is only in the microscope that our life looks so big. It is an indivisible point, drawn out and magnified by… — Arthur Schopenhauer Copy Share Image
Life to the great majority is only a constant struggle for mere existence, with the certainty of losing it at last. — Arthur Schopenhauer Copy Share Image
All religions promise a reward beyond life, in eternity, for excellences of the will or heart, but none for excellences of the… — Arthur Schopenhauer Copy Share Image
Nothing in life gives a man so much courage as the attainment or renewal of the conviction that other people regard him… — Arthur Schopenhauer Copy Share Image
“But he will fear least to become nothing in death who has recognized that he is already nothing now, and who consequently… — Arthur Schopenhauer Copy Share Image
Style is the physiognomy of the mind. It is more infallible than that of the body. To imitate the style of another… — Arthur Schopenhauer Copy Share Image
We should be surprised that a matter that generally plays such an important part in the life of man has hitherto been… — Arthur Schopenhauer Copy Share Image
Every time a man is begotten and born, the clock of human life is wound up anew to repeat once more its… — Arthur Schopenhauer Copy Share Image
“In fact, the balance wheel which maintains in motion the watch of metaphysics that never runs down, is the clear knowledge that… — Arthur Schopenhauer Copy Share Image
As the strata of the earth preserve in succession the living creatures of past epochs, so the shelves of libraries preserve in… — Arthur Schopenhauer Copy Share Image
Were an Asiatic to ask me for a definition of Europe, I should be forced to answer him: It is that part… — Arthur Schopenhauer Copy Share Image
Every new born being indeed comes fresh and blithe into the new existence, and enjoys it as a free gift: but there… — 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
