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Quote by Arthur Schopenhauer

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The Art of Literature

This comprehensive guide delves into the various aspects of writing, offering insights into the craft of crafting literature. 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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“The more I read, the more I was led to abhor and detest my enslavers. I could regard them in no other light than a band of successful robbers, who had left their homes, and gone to Africa, and stolen us from our homes, and in a strange land reduced us to slavery. I loathed them as being the meanest as well as the most wicked of men. As I read and contemplated the subject, behold! that very discontentment which Master Hugh had predicted would follow my learning to read had already come, to torment and sting my soul to unutterable anguish. As I writhed under it, I would at times feel that learning to read had been a curse rather than a blessing. It had given me a view of my wretched condition, without the remedy. it opened my eyes to the horrible pit, but to no ladder upon which to get out. in moments of agony, I envied my fellow-slaves for their stupidity. I have often wished myself a beast. I preferred the condition of the meanest reptile to my own. Any thing, no matter what, to get rid of thinking! It was this everlasting thinking of my condition that tormented me. There was no getting rid of it. It was pressed upon me by every object within sight or hearing, animate or inanimate. The silver trump of freedom had roused my soul to eternal wakefulness. Freedom now appeared, to disappear no more forever. It was heard in every sound and seen in every thing. It was ever present to torment me with a sense of my wretched condition. I saw nothing without seeing it, I heard nothing without hearing it, and felt nothing without feeling it. It looked from every star, it smiled in every calm, breathed in every wind, and moved in every storm.”

“It wasn’t just a coincidence — it was all meant to happen. I walked hundreds of miles, wandered through streets and alleyways, drifting along strange paths with no sense of direction. I searched for you in every passing face, certain you were among them. Until I saw that look drawn across your forehead… and only then, did I realize — you were never the one I was searching for.”