If life — the craving for which is the very essence of our being — were possessed of any positive intrinsic value, there would be no such thing as boredom at all: mere existence would satisfy us in itself, and we should want for nothing.
Arthur SchopenhauerLife to the great majority is only a constant struggle for mere existence, with the certainty of losing it at last.
Arthur SchopenhauerEach day is a little life: every waking and rising a little birth, every fresh morning a little youth, every going to rest and sleep a little death.
Arthur SchopenhauerThe conviction that the world and man is something that had better not have been, is of a kind to fill us with indulgence towards one another.
Arthur SchopenhauerIf children were brought into the world by an act of pure reason alone, would the human race continue to exist? Would not a man rather have so much sympathy with the coming generation as to spare it the burden of existence, or at any rate not take it upon himself to impose that burden upon it in cold blood?
Arthur SchopenhauerBecause people have no thoughts to deal in, they deal cards, and try and win one another's money. Idiots!
Arthur SchopenhauerLife is full of troubles and vexations, that one must either rise above it by means of corrected thoughts, or leave it.
Arthur SchopenhauerWhat makes people hard-hearted is this, that each man has, or fancies he has, as much as he can bear in his own troubles.
Arthur SchopenhauerNo one writes anything worth writing, unless he writes entirely for the sake of his subject.
Arthur SchopenhauerEvery man takes the limits of his own field of vision for the limits of the world. This is an error of the intellect as inevitable as that error of the eye which lets you fancy that on the horizon heaven and earth meet.
Arthur SchopenhauerMeans at our disposal should be regarded as a bulwark against the many evils and misfortunes that can occur. We should not regard such wealth as a permission or even an obligation to procure for ourselves the pleasures of the world.
Arthur SchopenhauerWill 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.
Arthur SchopenhauerThe best consolation in misfortune or affliction of any kind will be the thought of other people who are in a still worse plight than yourself; and this is a form of consolation open to every one. But what an awful fate this means for mankind as a whole! We are like lambs in a field, disporting themselves under the eye of the butcher, who chooses out first one and then another for his prey.
Arthur SchopenhauerTo call the world God is not to explain it; it is only to enrich our language with a superfluous synonym.
Arthur SchopenhauerThe beard, being a half-mask, should be forbidden by the police - It is, moreover, as a sexual symbol in the middle of the face, obscene: that is why it pleases women.
Arthur SchopenhauerAnd yet, just as our body would burst asunder if the pressure of the atmosphere were removed from it, so would the arrogance of men expand, if not to the point of bursting then to that of the most unbridled folly, indeed madness, if the pressure of want, toil, calamity and frustration were removed from their life. One can even say that we require at all times a certain quantity of care or sorrow or want, as a ship requires ballast, in order to keep on a straight course.
Arthur SchopenhauerHe who lives to see two or three generations is like a man who sits some time in the conjurer's booth at a fair, and witnesses the performance twice or thrice in succession. The tricks were meant to be seen only once; and when they are no longer a novelty and cease to deceive, their effect is gone.
Arthur SchopenhauerFor the world is Hell, and men are on the one hand the tormented souls and on the other the devils in it.
Arthur SchopenhauerNOT 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
Arthur SchopenhauerThe discovery of truth is prevented more effectively, not by the false appearance things present and which mislead into error, not directly by weakness of the reasoning powers, but by preconceived opinion, by prejudice.
Arthur SchopenhauerGenuine contempt, on the other hand, is the unsullied conviction of the worthlessness of another.
Arthur SchopenhauerFor an act to be moral the intention must be based on compassion, not duty. We do something because we want to do it, because we feel we have to do it, not because we ought to do it. And even if our efforts fail - or we never even get to implement them - we are still moral because our motivation was based on compassion.
Arthur SchopenhauerMonotheistic religions alone furnish the spectacle of religious wars, religious persecutions, heretical tribunals, that breaking of idols and destruction of images of the gods, that razing of Indian temples and Egyptian colossi, which had looked on the sun 3,000 years: just because a jealous god had said, Thou shalt make no graven image.
Arthur SchopenhauerWicked thoughts and worthless efforts gradually set their mark on the face, especially the eyes.
Arthur SchopenhauerThere are, first of all, two kinds of authors: those who write for the subject's sake, and those who write for writing's sake.
Arthur SchopenhauerIt is not what things are objectively and in themselves, but what they are for us, in our way of looking at them, that makes us happy or the reverse.
Arthur SchopenhauerThe weakness of their reasoning faculty also explains why women show more sympathy for the unfortunate than men;... and why, on the contrary, they are inferior to men as regards justice, and less honourable and conscientious.
Arthur SchopenhauerHence, in all countries the chief occupation of society is card-playing, and it is the gauge of its value, and an outward sign that it is bankrupt in thought. Because people have no thoughts to deal in, they deal cards, and try and win one another’s money. Idiots!
Arthur SchopenhauerConsider the Koran... this wretched book was sufficient to start a world-religion, to satisfy the metaphysical need of countless millions for twelve hundred years, to become the basis of their morality and of a remarkable contempt for death, and also to inspire them to bloody wars and the most extensive conquests. In this book we find the saddest and poorest form of theism. Much may be lost in translation, but I have not been able to discover in it one single idea of value.
Arthur SchopenhauerThe Universe is a dream dreamed by a single dreamer where all the dream characters dream too.
Arthur SchopenhauerGenius and madness have something in common: both live in a world that is different from that which exists for everyone else.
Arthur SchopenhauerThe brain may be regarded as a kind of parasite of the organism, a pensioner, as it were, who dwells with the body.
Arthur SchopenhauerMan is the only animal who causes pain to others with no other object than wanting to do so.
Arthur SchopenhauerOne can never read too little of bad, or too much of good books: bad books are intellectual poison; they destroy the mind. In order to read what is good one must make it a condition never to read what is bad; for life is short, and both time and strength limited.
Arthur SchopenhauerThere are, first of all, two kinds of authors: those who write for the subject's sake, and those who write for writing's sake. ... The truth is that when an author begins to write for the sake of covering paper, he is cheating the reader; because he writes under the pretext that he has something to say.
Arthur Schopenhauer