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Quote by Arthur Schopenhauer

“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.”

Quote by Arthur Schopenhauer

Book:Suffering, Suicide and Immortality: Eight Essays from The Parerga
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Suffering, Suicide and Immortality: Eight Essays from The Parerga

This book is a compilation of eight essays that delve into profound philosophical and existential questions surrounding the concepts of suffering, suicide, and the pursuit of immortality. The essays are drawn from a larger work, The Parerga. more

Author

Arthur Schopenhauer
Arthur Schopenhauer

Arthur Schopenhauer was a prominent German philosopher born on February 22, 1788, and died on September 21, 1860. He is one of the most important figures in 19th-century German philosophy and is known for his unique pessimistic philosophical ideas. more

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“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.”

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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.”

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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.”

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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.”

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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.”

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