“There is something quite peculiar to be found in the deep, unconscious seriousness with which two young people of opposite sex regard each other when they meet for the first time. the searching and penetrating glance they cast at each other, the careful inspection all the features and parts of their respective persons have to undergo. This scrutiny and examination is the meditation of the genius of the species concerning the individual possible through these two, and the combination of its qualities. The degree of their mutual pleasure in and longing for each other proves to be in accordance with the result of this meditation. After this longing has reached a significant degree, it can be suddenly extinguished again by the discovery of something that had previously remained unobserved. In all who are capable of procreation, therefore, the genius of the species meditates thus concerning the race to come. The constitution of this race is the great work with which Cupid is occupied, incessantly active, speculating, and pondering. Compared with the importance of his great business concerning the species and all the generations to come, the affairs of individuals in all their ephemeral totality are very insignificant; hence he is always ready to sacrifice these arbitrarily. For he is related to them as an immortal is to mortals, and his interests are related to theirs as the infinite to the finite. Therefore, conscious of managing affairs of a higher order than all those that concern only individual weal and woe, he pursues them with sublime and undisturbed calm amid the tumult of war, in the turmoil of business life, or during the raging of a plague; and follows them even into the seclusion of the cloister.”
Quote by Arthur Schopenhauer
Work
The World as Will and Representation: A Philosophical Foundation of Western Metaphysics and Aesthetics
Browse quotes and source details for this work. more
Author
You May Also Like
“Why can't his penis ever read the room?”
Source: Dirty Diana
“Some people spend their whole lives looking for a four-leaf clover. Some just gaze.”
Source: Yet Another New Land
Source: Raw Dog: The Naked Truth About Hot Dogs
Source: Give Me Your Hand
Source: All Fours
“was it even my own mind making the decisions?”
Source: Framed & Hunted: A True Story of Occult Persecution
Source: Selected letters of James Joyce
Source: The Daughters' War
