Quotessence
Home / Authors / Arthur Schopenhauer
Arthur Schopenhauer

Arthur Schopenhauer Quotes

Philosopher

Filter quotes by topic

AllMenIfsWorldPhilosophicalPessimismMayPeopleFirstsPhilosophyShouldThinkingHandsExistenceLifeSufferingCharacterGivingHumansMindMean

Famous Arthur Schopenhauer Quotes

“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 to you than a much smaller amount if you have not thought it over for yourself; because only through ordering what you know by comparing every truth with every other truth can you take complete possession of your knowledge and get it into your power. You can think about only what you know, so you ought to learn something; on the other hand, you can know only what you have thought about.”

IfsThinkingKnowsWellsMayHandsValuesOughtAmountLibraryPossessionCompareDisorder
Author:Arthur Schopenhauer
Create image

“I observed once to Goethe that when a friend is with us we do not think the same of him as when he is away. He replied, "Yes! because the absent friend is yourself, and he exists only in your head; whereas the friend who is present has an individuality of his own, and moves according to laws of his own, which cannot always be in accordance with those which you form for yourself.”

ThinkingMovingFormLawIndividualityAbsentAbsent Friends
Book:The Art of Controversy: And Other Posthumous Papers
Create image

“The poet presents the imagination with images from life and human characters and situations, sets them all in motion and leaves itto the beholder to let these images take his thoughts as far as his mental powers will permit. This is why he is able to engage men of the most differing capabilities, indeed fools and sages together. The philosopher, on the other hand, presents not life itself but the finished thoughts which he has abstracted from it and then demands that the reader should think precisely as, and precisely as far as, he himself thinks. That is why his public is so small.”

ThinkingMenShouldHumansCharacterHandsAbleTogetherPoetryImaginationSituationPoetFoolReaderDemandPhilosophicalPhilosopherFinishedPermitCapabilitySageBeholderMental Power
Author:Arthur Schopenhauer
Create image

“Reading is merely a surrogate for thinking for yourself; it means letting someone else direct your thoughts. Many books, moreover, serve merely to show how many ways there are of being wrong, and how far astray you yourself would go if you followed their guidance. You should read only when your own thoughts dry up, which will of course happen frequently enough even to the best heads; but to banish your own thoughts so as to take up a book is a sin against the holy ghost; it is like deserting untrammeled nature to look at a herbarium or engravings of landscapes.”

IfsThinkingWayShouldLooksMeanBookEnoughShowsHappensCoursesReadingSinHolyDirectGhostLandscapeGuidanceDryHoly GhostBeing WrongSurrogatesDry Up
Book:101 Facts of life
Create image

“The intellectual attainments of a man who thinks for himself resemble a fine painting, where the light and shade are correct, the tone sustained, the colour perfectly harmonised; it is true to life. On the other hand, the intellectual attainments of the mere man of learning are like a large palette, full of all sorts of colours, which at most are systematically arranged, but devoid of harmony, connection and meaning.”

ThinkingMenHandsLightPaintingFineIntellectualConnectionsHarmonyMereToneColourShadeAttainmentTrue LifePalette
Book:The Art of Literature: a Series of Essays in Arthur Schopenhauer...
Create image

“A poet or philosopher should have no fault to find with his age if it only permits him to do his work undisturbed in his own corner; nor with his fate if the corner granted him allows of his following his vocation without having to think about other people.”

PeopleIfsThinkingShouldAgeFatePoetShould HaveFaultsPhilosopherFollowingCornersGrantedPermitVocationMisanthropy
Book:Parerga and Paralipomena: A Collection of Philosophical Essays
Create image

“A man never is happy, but spends his whole life in striving after something which he thinks will make him so; he seldom attains his goal, and when he does, it is only to be disappointed; he is mostly shipwrecked in the end, and comes into harbor with mast and rigging gone. And then, it is all one whether he has been happy or miserable; for his life was never anything more than a present moment always vanishing; and now it is over.”

ThinkingMenDoeHas BeensEndsWholeMomentsGoalGoneStriveWhole LifeMiserablePresent MomentDisappointedHarborsVanishingMasts
Book:Suffering, Suicide and Immortality: Eight Essays from The Parerga
Create image

“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
Create image