NOT to my contemporaries, not to my compatriots but to mankind I commit my now completed work in the confidence that it will not be without value for them, even if this should be late recognised, as is commonly the lot of what is good. For it cannot have been for the passing generation, engrossed with the delusion of the moment, that my mind, almost against my will, has uninterruptedly stuck to its work through the course of a long life. preface to the second edition of "the world as will and representation

As the biggest library if it is in disorder is not as useful as a small but well-arranged one, so you may accumulate a vast amount of knowledge but it will be of far less value than a much smaller amount if you have not thought it over for yourself.

We seldom think of what we have but always of what we lack. Therefore, rather than grateful, we are bitter.

Wealth is like sea-water; the more we drink, the thirstier we become; and the same is true of fame.

Thus also every keen pleasure is an error and an illusion, for no attained wish can give lasting satisfaction.

Treat a work of art like a prince. Let it speak to you first.

For whence did Dante take the materials for his hell but from this our actual world? And yet he made a very proper hell of it.