Arthur Schopenhauer Quotes

A great affliction of all Philistines is that idealities afford them no entertainment, but to escape from boredom they are always in need of realities.

It is only in the microscope that our life looks so big. It is an indivisible point, drawn out and magnified by the powerful lenses of Time and Space.

Every truth passes through 3 stages before it is recognized 1)ridicule 2) opposition 3) accepted as self-evident.

I love looking at famous people. Because of the way they look. Because of the way photography makes them look famous.

Boredom is just the reverse side of fascination: both depend on being outside rather than inside a situation, and one leads to the other.

It is difficult to keep quiet if you have nothing to do

Honor means that a man is not exceptional; fame, that he is. Fame is something which must be won; honor, only something which must not be lost.

A man can do what he wants, but not want what he wants.

Time is that in which all things pass away.

With people of limited ability modesty is merely honesty. But with those who possess great talent it is hypocrisy.

People of Wealth and the so called upper class suffer the most from boredom.

Everybody's friend is nobody's.

Men need some kind of external activity, because they are inactive within.

To read a book is to hold an entire world in the palm of your hand. That world is unique to you; no two readers can ever inhabit the same world

Each day is a little life.

I owe what is best in my own development to the impression made by Kant's works, the sacred writings of the Hindus, and Plato.

For, as you know, religions are like glow-worms; they shine only when it is dark.

Men are a thousand times more intent on becoming rich than on acquiring culture, though it is quite certain that what a man IS contributes more to his happiness than what he HAS.

There is only one inborn error. and that is the notion that we exist in order to be happy.

Music is the melody whose text is the world.

What a man is contributes much more to his happiness than what he has or how he is regarded by others.

Happiness consists in frequent repetition of pleasure

The business of the novelist is not to relate great events, but to make small ones interesting.

Obstinacy is the result of the will forcing itself into the place of the intellect.

In action a great heart is the chief qualification. In work, a great head.

To desire immortality is to desire the eternal perpetuation of a great mistake

The mother of useful arts is necessity; that of the fine arts is luxury. For father the former has intellect; the latter genius, which itself is a kind of luxury.

Reasonable and vicious are quite consistent with each other, in fact, only through their union are great and far-reaching crimes possible

National character is only another name for the particular form which the littleness, perversity and baseness of mankind take in every country. Every nation mocks at other nations, and all are right.

Honor has not to be won; it must only not be lost.

The young should early be trained to bear being left alone; for it is a source of happiness and peace of mind.

Patriotism is the passion of fools and the most foolish of passions.

I know of no more beautiful prayer than that which the Hindus of old used in closing: May all that have life be delivered from suffering.

In their hearts women think that it is men's business to earn money and theirs to spend it.

The greatest achievements of the human mind are generally received with distrust.

Consciousness is the mere surface of our minds, of which, as of the earth, we do not know the inside, but only the crust.

Every satisfaction he attains lays the seeds of some new desire, so that there is no end to the wishes of each individual will.

It is with trifles, and when he is off guard, that a man best reveals his character.

Life to the great majority is only a constant struggle for mere existence, with the certainty of losing it at last.

Talent works for money and fame; the motive which moves genius to productivity is, on the other hand, less easy to determine.

Suffering by nature or chance never seems so painful as suffering inflicted on us by the arbitrary will of another.

Money is human happiness in the abstract.

Newspapers are the second hand of history. This hand, however, is usually not only of inferior metal to the other hands, it also seldom works properly.

Patriotism, when it wants to make itself felt in the domain of learning, is a dirty fellow who should be thrown out of doors.

Wicked thoughts and worthless efforts gradually set their mark on the face, especially the eyes.

Will without intellect is the most vulgar and common thing in the world, possessed by every blockhead, who, in the gratification of his passions, shows the stuff of which he is made.

(Politeness is) a tacit agreement that people's miserable defects, whether moral or intellectual, shall on either side be ignored and not be made the subject of reproach.

It's the niceties that make the difference fate gives us the hand, and we play the cards.

The difficulty is to try and teach the multitude that something can be true and untrue at the same time.

This is the case with many learned persons; they have read themselves stupid.