In the blessings as well as in the ills of life, less depends upon what befalls us than upon the way in which it is met.

When a man has reached a condition in which he believes that a thing must happen because he does not wish it, and that what he wishes to happen never will be, this is really the state called desperation.

The safest way of not being very miserable is not to expect to be very happy.

If at times I have thought myself unfortunate, it is because of a confusion, an error. I have mistaken myself for someone else... Who am I really? I am the author of The World as Will and Representation, I am the one who has given an answer to the mystery of Being that will occupy the thinkers of future centuries. That is what I am, and who can dispute it in the years of life that still remain for me?

We forfeit three-quarters of ourselves in order to be like other people.

Intellect is a magnitude of intensity, not a magnitude of extensity.

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