Quotessence
Home / Authors / Arthur Schopenhauer
Arthur Schopenhauer

Arthur Schopenhauer Quotes

Philosopher

Filter quotes by topic

AllMenIfsWorldPhilosophicalPessimismMayPeopleFirstsPhilosophyShouldThinkingHandsExistenceLifeSufferingCharacterGivingHumansMindMean

Famous Arthur Schopenhauer Quotes

“And to this world, to this scene of tormented and agonised beings, who only continue to exist by devouring each other, in which, therefore, every ravenous beast is the living grave of thousands of others, and its self-maintenance is a chain of painful deaths; and in which the capacity for feeling pain increases with knowledge, and therefore reaches its highest degree in man, a degree which is the higher the more intelligent the man is; to this world it has been sought to apply the system of optimism, and demonstrate to us that it is the best of all possible worlds. The absurdity is glaring.”

PhilosophyGermanPhilosophieDeutschEnglisch
Book:The World as Will and Representation, Volume I
Create image

“It is the subject of the will, i.e., his own volition, which fills the consciousness of the singer, often as a released and satisfied desire ; (joy), but still oftener as an inhibited desire ( grief), always as an affect, a passion, a moved state of mind. Besides this, however, and along with it, by the sight of surrounding nature, the singer becomes conscious of himself as the subject of pure will-less knowing, whose unbroken blissful peace now appears, in contrast to the stress of desire, which-is always restricted and always needy. The feeling of this contrast, this alternation, is really what the song as a whole expresses and what principally constitutes the lyrical state. In it pure knowing comes to us as it were to deliver us from willing and its strain; we follow, but only for moments; willing, the remembrance of our own personal ends, tears us anew from peaceful contemplation; yet ever again the next beautiful environment in which pure will-less knowledge presents itself to us lures us away from willing. Therefore, in the song and the lyrical mood, willing (the personal interest of the ends) and pure perception of the environment are wonderfully mingled; connections between them are sought and imagined; the subjective mood, the affection of the will, imparts its own hue to the perceived environment, and vice versa. Genuine song is the expression of the whole of this mingled and divided state of mind.”

ArtPhilosophySongNietzsche
Author:Arthur Schopenhauer
Create image

“Boundless compassion for all living beings is the surest and most certain guarantee of pure moral conduct, and needs no casuistry. Whoever is filled with it will assuredly injure no one, do harm to no one, encroach on no man's rights; he will rather have regard for every one, forgive every one, help every one as far as he can, and all his actions will bear the stamp of justice and loving-kindness.”

LovePhilosophySufferingCompassionEthicsMorals
Book:The Basis of Morality
Create image

“Every human face is a hieroglyphic, and a hieroglyphic, too, which admits of being deciphered, the alphabet of which we carry about with us already perfected. As a matter of fact, the face of a man gives us a fuller and more interesting information than his tongue; for his face is the compendium of all he will ever say, as it is the one record of all his thoughts and endeavors. And, moreover, the tongue tells the thought of one man only, whereas the face expresses a thought of nature itself: so that everyone is worth attentive observation, even though everyone may not be worth talking to.”

PhilosophyMankindPhysiognomy
Book:On Physiognomy
Create image

“The auspices for philosophy are bad if, when proceeding ostensibly on the investigation of truth, we start saying farewell to all uprightness, honesty and sincerity, and are intent only on passing ourselves off for what we are not. We then assume, like those three sophists [Fichte, Schelling and Hegel], first a false pathos, then an affected and lofty earnestness, then an air of infinite superiority, in order to impose where we despair of ever being able to convince.”

IfsFirstsPhilosophyAbleOrderThreeAirHonestyDespairInfiniteAssumingPassingPassingsConvinceAffectedSincerityInvestigationSuperiorityFarewellLoftyProceedingPathosEarnestnessHegelSaying FarewellUprightness
Author:Arthur Schopenhauer
Create image

“Poetry is related to philosophy as experience is related to empirical science. Experience makes us acquainted with the phenomenon in the particular and by means of examples, science embraces the whole of phenomena by means of general conceptions. So poetry seeks to make us acquainted with the Platonic Ideas through the particular and by means of examples. Philosophy aims at teaching, as a whole and in general, the inner nature of things which expresses itself in these. One sees even here that poetry bears more the character of youth, philosophy that of old age.”

MeanIdeasPhilosophyWholeCharacterAgeTeachingExampleYouthParticularBearsAimEmbraceOld AgeRelatedPoetry IsPhenomenonConceptionPlatonic
Book:The World As Will And Idea (Vol. 3 of 3)
Create image

“In youth it is the outward aspect of things that most engages us; while in age, thought or reflection is the predominating qualityof the mind. Hence, youth is the time for poetry, and age is more inclined to philosophy. In practical affairs it is the same: a man shapes his resolutions in youth more by the impression that the outward world makes upon him; whereas, when he is old, it is thought that determines his actions.”

MenWorldMindPhilosophyAgeActionYouthShapesReflectionAspectAffairDeterminePracticalsImpressionResolution
Book:Counsels and Maxims: Top of Schopenhauer
Create image

“Animals learn death first at the moment of death;...man approaches death with the knowledge it is closer every hour, and this creates a feeling of uncertainty over his life, even for him who forgets in the business of life that annihilation is awaiting him. It is for this reason chiefly that we have philosophy and religion.”

MenFirstsReasonPhilosophyMomentsFeelingsHoursForgetAnimalApproachUncertaintyAnnihilationPhilosophy And Religion
Author:Arthur Schopenhauer
Create image

“How very paltry and limited the normal human intellect is, and how little lucidity there is in the human consciousness, may be judged from the fact that, despite the ephemeral brevity of human life, the uncertainty of our existence and the countless enigmas which press upon us from all sides, everyone does not continually and ceaselessly philosophize, but that only the rarest of exceptions do.”

HumansMayLittlesDoePhilosophyFactsSidesExistenceConsciousnessNormalPressesPhilosopherIntellectDespiteUncertaintyHuman LifeExceptionJudgedEphemeralBrevityEnigmaHuman ConsciousnessLucidity
Book:On the Suffering of the World
Create image

“Genius is its own reward; for the best that one is, one must necessarily be for oneself. . . . Further, genius consists in the working of the free intellect., and as a consequence the productions of genius serve no useful purpose. The work of genius may be music, philosophy, painting, or poetry; it is nothing for use or profit. To be useless and unprofitable is one of the characteristics of genius; it is their patent of nobility.”

MayPhilosophyUsePurposeMusicPaintingGeniusConsequenceRewardsOneselfProfitProductionsIntellectUselessCharacteristicsNobilityPatents
Author:Arthur Schopenhauer
Create image

“Descartes is rightly regarded as the father of modern philosophy primarily and generally because he helped the faculty of reason to stand on its own feet by teaching men to use their brains in place whereof the Bible, on the one hand, and Aristotle, on the other, had previously served.”

MenReasonPhilosophyUseHandsFatherBrainFeetTeachingModernFacultyModern Philosophy
Book:Parerga and Paralipomena: Short Philosophical Essays
Create image

“It is the courage to make a clean breast of it in the face of every question that makes the philosopher. He must be like Sophocles' Oedipus, who, seeking enlightenment concerning his terrible fate, pursues his indefatigable inquiry even though he divines that appalling horror awaits him in the answer. But most of us carry with us the Jocasta in our hearts, who begs Oedipus, for God's sake, not to inquire further.”

HeartPhilosophyFacesAnswersFateDivineTerribleHorrorEnlightenmentCleanSakePhilosopherSeekingPursueBreastsInquiryOedipus
Author:Arthur Schopenhauer
Create image