Arthur Schopenhauer was a philosopher born on 22 February 1788 in Gdansk to a wealthy merchant, Heinrich Floris Schopenhauer and his younger wife, Johanna. He belonged to Germany. He was a 19th-century philosopher. He is popularly known as the philosopher of pessimism in the world. He articulated a worldview that challenges the value of existence.
He is regarded as the greatest German stylist for his deep and muscular prose. His best-known work is the 1818 work The World as Will and Representation (expanded in 1844), which characterizes the phenomenal world as the product of a blind and insatiable metaphysical will. He is also known as the first German philosopher to incorporate Eastern thought into his writings.
His father wanted Arthur to become a prosperous merchant, so he travelled with Arthur extensively in his youth. But from an early age, Arthur wanted to pursue the life of a scholar. The idea of scholarly things attracted him the most. Thus, he wanted to become a philosopher.
Schopenhauer later developed an atheistic metaphysical and ethical system that rejected the contemporary ideas of German idealism in the world.
His main interests were morality, psychology, ethics, aesthetics and metaphysics. He was deeply concerned with these topics because they required scholarly views on such subjects.
Arthur Schopenhauer philosophy was deeply focused on the diversities of fields. In Schopenhauer's philosophy, denial of the will is attained by:
1. The personal experience of extremely great suffering that leads to loss of the will to live
2. The knowledge of the essential nature of life in the world through observation of other people's suffering.
He was influenced by Leo Tolstoy, Fet, Mahler, Albert Einstein and several others. Below are some of the famous Arthur Schopenhauer Quotes.
Talent hits a target no one else can hit; Genius hits a target no one else can see.
Here, Arthur explains the importance of talent and geniuses. A talented person can hit where no one can, and a genius person knows how to tackle the task diligently and tactfully. A genius person hits the target with so much precision that no one can become like him.
To life alone is the fate of all great souls.
Living alone is an art in itself. A person who knows how to live alone is the greatest of all because he can make tough tasks into easier ones. He knows how to lead himself and is much more knowledgeable than others.
Compassion is the basis of morality.
Being compassionate is the basis of morality means that a compassionate person is kind-hearted, full of emotions and has the characteristic of feeling the emotions of everybody. A compassionate person is full of heart and can articulate the feelings of others. To conduct the feeling of compassion diligently is a basic value of morality.
The two enemies of human happiness are pain and boredom.
Both pain and boredom are the greatest enemies of human happiness. Pain takes away the pleasure of life, and boredom makes a person a dummy. Hence, these both are not required in life.
We forfeit three-fourths of ourselves to be like other people.
We must not copy others but rather be natural. We must be original and not try to copy others because we tend to lose ourselves and our identity by copying others.
All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.
The truth in the world is not easily accepted. It has to pass through many stages so that it is acceptable by all. Firstly, it is ridiculed or mocked by others. Secondly, it is violently opposed by the people as they do not agree to the facts of the truth, and lastly, after passing through these two stages, the truth is easily self-evident, and the masses now accept it.
Continue reading some more Arthur Schopenhauer Quotes....
Happiness consists of frequent repetition of pleasure.
Happiness is the need of every human being. Every human being desires happiness in his or her life. Being happy is all we need. Happiness makes the mind feel good. Hence, happiness can be attained by the frequent repetition of pleasure.
The person who writes for fools is always sure of a large audience.
A person who writes for fools is defining to achieve a huge audience because he is writing for fools, and the fools are sure to like it, due to which he is bound to get a huge audience in the end.
Life is a constant process of dying.
The above quote tries to explain that life gives constant death by causing pain in the lives of the people. No one wants pain in their life, but it is life that makes people sad and very absurd.
Treat a work of art like a prince: let it speak to you first.
One must treat his work like a prince because it is his work that will speak to everyone. A person's work must be so wonderful that it speaks to others in a thousand ways about you.
No rose without a thorn but many a thorn without a rose.
The author explains in this quote that a rose is not easily blossomed; it takes years for it to come into being. This quote easily relates to the work done by a man in his life. A person does not become successful easily as it takes years of hard work due to which he becomes later on in his life.
Marrying means to halve one's rights and double one's duties.
To marry someone is not an easy task because by marrying someone you are not only dividing your rights with the other person but by marrying you are sure to double your duties which you have to follow in your life with that person. Hence, marriage is full of duties and responsibilities.
Few more Arthur Schopenhauer Quotes....
The safest way of not being very miserable is not to expect to be very happy.
Do not expect anything from anyone. Be on your own. By being miserable and not expecting from others is the best way.
Buying books would be a good thing if one could also buy the time to read them, but as a rule, the purchase of books is mistaken for the appropriation of their contents.
People buy a lot number of books. But very few have the time to read them. It is a fascination to buy many books but only some people take out the time to read such content in their life. They only buy books to put them on their shelves.
The world is my idea.
The above quote tries to explain that the world is comprised of ideas that we make in our minds. A mind can form good or bad ideas, which form the base of the world. If we think the word is good, it appears good, and if we think the world is bad, it appears so. Hence, it depends on us as to what we think in our minds.
Wealth is like sea-water; the more we drink, the thirstier we become, and the same is true of fame.
Wealth and fame are directly proportional to each other. If we think that we want more wealth and fame, then we are bound to become thirsty of these things in our lives and will fall more and more and reach the bottom of life, and there will be nothing and only thirst about such lusty things. These things make a person greedy.
Some more Arthur Schopenhauer Quotes....
Faith is like love: it does not let itself be forced.
Faith is a great force. It is a divine force that is love in itself. It need not to be forced, but rather it is what comes out of a person. If a person has faith in a particular thing, then the faith will lead him to a successful destination and give him peace in his life.
We seldom think of what we have, but always of what we lack.
A person is never satisfied in his life. He is more concerned about what he lacks in his life, but rather, he does not think about what he has in his life. He is more focused on what is missing in his life. He must count the gifts bestowed on him by the Lord, but his mind only thinks about those things that are unnecessary.
Life swings like a pendulum backwards and forward between pain and boredom.
Life is like a pendulum clock that is constantly moving between pain and boredom, and human lives are suffering between these two dimensions of life.
The assumption that animals are without rights and the illusion that our treatment of them has no moral significance is a positively outrageous example of Western crudity and barbarity. Universal compassion is the only guarantee of morality.
We people think that compassion is to be regarded in terms of only humans. Animals are not regarded for their values and are usually ill-treated in society. Animals are not properly cared for and loved by the people. Being less compassionate towards them is all we find in our society, but according to Arthur, compassion is the guarantee of morality, and it needs to be universally accepted in terms of everybody, whether it is a human being or it is an animal. Thus, it is a right of everybody to receive compassion, and it is a right of everybody to receive the right conduct by others.
