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Arthur Schopenhauer

Arthur Schopenhauer Quotes

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Famous Arthur Schopenhauer Quotes

“He 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.”

MenTwoThreeGoneGenerationsEffectsFairsPerformancesTricksCeaseWitnessMeant To BeDeceivingNoveltySuccessionWere Meant To BeThriceThree Generations
Book:Studies in Pessimism
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“In order to increase his pleasures, man has intentionally added to the number and pressure of his needs, which in their original state were not much more difficult to satisfy than those of the brute. Hence luxury in all its forms; delicate food, the use of tobacco and opium, spirituous liquors, fine clothes, and the thousand and one things that he considers necessary to his existence.”

MenNeedsStatesUseFormOrderDifficultPleasureNumbersExistenceOne ThingFineThousandClothesIncreasePressureOriginalsLuxuryDelicateBrutesTobaccoLiquorOpium
Book:The Essays of Arthur Schopenhauer - Studies in Pessimism (illustrated)
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“Consciousness makes the individual careful to maintain his own existence; and if this were not so, there would be no surety for the preservation of the species. From all this it is clear that individuality is not a form of perfection, but rather a limitation; and so to be freed from it is not loss but gain.”

IfsWould BeFormIndividualLossExistenceConsciousnessClearGainsPerfectionSpeciesIndividualityCarefulLimitationPreservation
Book:The Essays of Arthur Schopenhauer - Studies in Pessimism (illustrated)
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“The real meaning of persona is a mask, such as actors were accustomed to wear on the ancient stage; and it is quite true that no one shows himself as he is, but wears his mask and plays his part. Indeed, the whole of our social arrangements may be likened to a perpetual comedy; and this is why a man who is worth anything finds society so insipid, while a blockhead is quite at home in it.”

MenMayRealPlayWholeShowsHomeActorsSocialComedyStageAncientMaskPerpetualArrangementsAccustomedPersonaInsipidBlockheads
Book:Studies in Pessimism: Top of Schopenhauer
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“No one knows what capacities for doing and suffering he has in himself, until something comes to rouse them to activity: just as in a pond of still water, lying there like a mirror, there is no sign of the roar and thunder with which it can leap from the precipice, and yet remain what it is; or again, rise high in the air as a fountain. When water is as cold as ice, you can have no idea of the latent warmth contained in it.”

KnowsStillsIdeasLyingSufferingWaterAirColdActivityCapacityMirrorsIceNo IdeaLeapWarmthFountainThunderPondsLatentPrecipiceStill Waters
Book:Studies in Pessimism: Top of Schopenhauer
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“Man may have the most excellent judgment in all other matters, and yet go wrong in those which concern himself; because here the will comes in and deranges the intellect at once. Therefore let a man take counsel of a friend. A doctor can cure everyone but himself; if he falls ill, he sends for a colleague.”

IfsMenMayMatterFallJudgmentConcernDoctorsIllIntellectCuresExcellentColleagues
Book:Suffering, Suicide and Immortality: Eight Essays from The Parerga
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“Imagination is strong in a man when that particular function of the brain which enables him to observe is roused to activity without any necessary excitement of the sense. Accordingly, we find that imagination is active just in proportion as our sense are not excited by external objects. A long period of solitude, whether in prison or in a sick room; quiet, twilight, darkness-these are the things that promote its activity; and under their influence it comes into play of itself.”

MenLongPlayStrongImaginationRoomsBrainDarknessInfluenceObjectsParticularPeriodsActivitySolitudeQuietSickFunctionPrisonExcitedActiveExcitementProportionTwilight
Book:Collected Essays of Arthur Schopenhauer
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“The scenes and events of long ago, and the persons who took part in them, wear a charming aspect to the eye of memory, which sees only the outlines and takes no note of disagreeable details. The present enjoys no such advantage, and so it always seems defective.”

PersonsLongSeemsEyeEnjoyMemoriesEventsSceneAdvantageAspectNotesDetailsLong AgoCharmingOutlinesDisagreeableDefective
Book:Collected Essays of Arthur Schopenhauer
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“The little incidents and accidents of every day fill us with emotion, anxiety, annoyance, passion, as long as they are close to us, when they appear so big, so important, so serious; but as soon as they are borne down the restless stream of time they lose what significance they had; we think no more of them and soon forget them altogether. They were big only because they were near.”

ThinkingLittlesLongImportantBigsPassionLosesForgetEmotionSeriousAnxietyAccidentsStreamsSignificanceRestlessIncidentsAnnoyance
Book:Essays of Arthur Schopenhauer: selected and translated by T. Bailey Saunders
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“The ordinary method of education is to imprint ideas and opinions, in the strict sense of the word, prejudices, on the mind of the child, before it has had any but a very few particular observations. It is thus that he afterwards comes to view the world and gather experience through the medium of those ready-made ideas, rather than to let his ideas be formed for him out of his own experience of life, as they ought to be.”

WorldMindChildrenMadeIdeasViewsOpinionParticularReadyOughtOrdinaryPrejudiceMethodMediumsObservationStrict
Book:Studies in Pessimism
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“A man's knowledge may be said to be mature, in other words, when it has reached the most complete state of perfection to which he, as an individual, is capable of bringing it, when an exact correspondence is established between the whole of his abstract ideas and the things he has actually perceived for himself. His will mean that each of his abstract ideas rests, directly or indirectly, upon a basis of observation, which alone endows it with any real value; and also that he is able to place every observation he makes under the right abstract idea which belongs to it.”

MenMayMeanSaidIdeasRealStatesWholeAbleValuesIndividualCapablePerfectionBasesObservationAbstractMatureCorrespondenceReal Value
Book:Collected Essays of Arthur Schopenhauer
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“Just as the largest library, badly arranged, is not so useful as a very moderate one that is well arranged, so the greatest amount of knowledge, if not elaborated by our own thoughts, is worth much less than a far smaller volume that has been abundantly and repeatedly thought over.”

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Book:Parerga and Paralipomena: Short Philosophical Essays
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