Philosophy Quotes by Arthur Schopenhauer

I have described religion as the metaphysics of the people.

— Arthur Schopenhauer

Compassion is the basis of all morality

— Arthur Schopenhauer

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

— Arthur Schopenhauer

“Truth that is naked is the most beautiful.”

— Arthur Schopenhauer

Religion is the metaphysics of the masses.

— Arthur Schopenhauer

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

— Arthur Schopenhauer

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

— Arthur Schopenhauer

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

— Arthur Schopenhauer

It is the courage to make a clean breast of it in the face of every question that makes the philosopher.

— Arthur Schopenhauer

In every page of David Hume, there is more to be learned than from Hegel's, Herbart's and Schleiermacher's complete philosophical works.

— Arthur Schopenhauer

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

— Arthur Schopenhauer

Physics is unable to stand on its own feet, but needs a metaphysics on which to support itself, whatever fine airs it…

— Arthur Schopenhauer

“Music is an unconscious exercise in metaphysics in which the mind does not know it is philosophizing.”

— Arthur Schopenhauer

Descartes is rightly regarded as the father of modern philosophy primarily and generally because he helped the faculty of reason to stand…

— Arthur Schopenhauer

“Death is the true inspiring genius, or the muse of philosophy, wherefore Socrates has defined the latter as θανάτου μελέτη. Indeed without…

— Arthur Schopenhauer

There is more to be learnt from every page of David Hume than from the collected philosophical works of Hegel, Herbart, and…

— Arthur Schopenhauer

“Writers may be classified as meteors, planets, and fixed stars. They belong not to one system, one nation only, but to the…

— Arthur Schopenhauer

We should be surprised that a matter that generally plays such an important part in the life of man has hitherto been…

— Arthur Schopenhauer

To repeat abstractly, universally, and distinctly in concepts the whole inner nature of the world , and thus to deposit it as…

— Arthur Schopenhauer

A poet or philosopher should have no fault to find with his age if it only permits him to do his work…

— Arthur Schopenhauer

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

— Arthur Schopenhauer

Genius is its own reward; for the best that one is, one must necessarily be for oneself. . . . Further, genius…

— Arthur Schopenhauer

In youth it is the outward aspect of things that most engages us; while in age, thought or reflection is the predominating…

— Arthur Schopenhauer

How very paltry and limited the normal human intellect is, and how little lucidity there is in the human consciousness, may be…

— Arthur Schopenhauer

“Vladimir Kush , Shell Bronze , Lovers Entwined (painting) “Why, then, does the man in love hang with complete abandon on the…

— Arthur Schopenhauer

“What is more, in fact, we very soon look upon the world as something whose non-existence is not only conceivable, but even…

— Arthur Schopenhauer

“It is just as little necessary for the saint to be a philosopher as for the philosopher to be a saint; just…

— Arthur Schopenhauer

Animals learn death first at the moment of death;...man approaches death with the knowledge it is closer every hour, and this creates…

— Arthur Schopenhauer

“Voltaire exclaims: ‘Oh metaphysics! We have come precisely as far as in the time of the early Druids.’c But what other science…

— Arthur Schopenhauer

“When you consider how great and immediate is the problem of existence, this ambiguous, tormented, fleeting, dream-like existence - so great and…

— Arthur Schopenhauer

“We also find *physics*, in the widest sense of the word, concerned with the explanation of phenomena in the world; but it…

— Arthur Schopenhauer

“I now turn to a *subjective* consideration that belongs here; yet I can give even less distinctness to it than to the…

— Arthur Schopenhauer

“In conformity with this spirit and aim of the Stoa, Epictetus begins with it and constantly returns to it as the kernel…

— Arthur Schopenhauer

“The most perfect and satisfactory knowledge is that of perception but this is limited to the absolutely particular, to the individual. The…

— Arthur Schopenhauer

“Only by the aid of language does reason bring about its most important achievements, namely the harmonious and consistent action of several…

— Arthur Schopenhauer

“Thus, because Christian morality leaves animals out of account (of this, more later on), they are at once outlawed in philosophical morals;…

— Arthur Schopenhauer

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

— Arthur Schopenhauer

Philosophy ... is a science, and as such has no articles of faith; accordingly, in it nothing can be assumed as existing…

— Arthur Schopenhauer

“Hegel, installed from above, by the powers that be, as the certified Great Philosopher, was a flat-headed, insipid, nauseating, illiterate charlatan who…

— Arthur Schopenhauer

“If I were to say that the so-called philosophy of this fellow Hegel is a colossal piece of mystification which will yet…

— Arthur Schopenhauer