100 Quotes by Arthur Schopenhauer
Arthur Schopenhauer was a German philosopher who lived from 1788 to 1860. He is known for his pessimistic views on human existence and his emphasis on the importance of individual freedom. Schopenhauer's major work, "The World as Will and Representation," explores the nature of reality and the human condition, arguing that human desire and suffering are the result of a fundamental will to live. He was also a major influence on later philosophers such as Nietzsche and Freud. Despite his controversial views, Schopenhauer's work continues to be studied and debated today. (Bio)
Arthur Schopenhauer Quotes
Life swings like a pendulum backward and forward between pain and boredom. (Quote Meaning)
A high degree of intellect tends to make a man unsocial. (Meaning)
Mostly it is loss which teaches us about the worth of things. (Quote Meaning)
What people commonly call fate is mostly their own stupidity. (Meaning)
The safest way of not being very miserable is not to expect to be very happy. (Quote Meaning)
To overcome difficulties is to experience the full delight of existence. (Meaning)
The Universe is a dream dreamed by a single dreamer where all the dream characters dream too. (Quote Meaning)
After your death you will be what you were before your birth. (Meaning)
The greatest of follies is to sacrifice health for any other kind of happiness. (Quote Meaning)
Life without pain has no meaning. (Meaning)
Intellect is invisible to the man who has none. (Quote Meaning)
A sense of humour is the only divine quality of man (Meaning)
I've never known any trouble than an hour's reading didn't assuage. (Quote Meaning)
Hope is the confusion of the desire for a thing with its probability. (Meaning)
It is a clear gain to sacrifice pleasure in order to avoid pain. (Quote Meaning)
Everybody's friend is nobody's. (Meaning)
One should use common words to say uncommon things (Quote Meaning)
Men are by nature merely indifferent to one another; but women are by nature enemies. (Meaning)
Life is a business that does not cover the costs. (Quote Meaning)
A man can surely do what he wills to do, but cannot determine what he wills. (Meaning)
Politeness is to human nature what warmth is to wax. (Quote Meaning)
Intellect is a magnitude of intensity, not a magnitude of extensity. (Meaning)
Each day is a little life. (Quote Meaning)
The alchemists in their search for gold discovered many other things of greater value. (Meaning)
Happiness consists in frequent repetition of pleasure (Quote Meaning)
Music is the melody whose text is the world. (Meaning)
A hedge between keeps friendship green. (Quote Meaning)
The greatest achievements of the human mind are generally received with distrust. (Meaning)
Wealth is like sea-water; the more we drink, the thirstier we become; and the same is true of fame. (Quote Meaning)
In action a great heart is the chief qualification. In work, a great head. (Meaning)
There is no doubt that life is given us, not to be enjoyed, but to be overcome. (Quote Meaning)
A man can do what he wants, but not want what he wants. (Meaning)
Life is a constant process of dying. (Quote Meaning)
The first forty years of life give us the text; the next thirty supply the commentary on it. (Meaning)
Buying books would be a good thing if one could also buy the time to read them. (Quote Meaning)
The more unintelligent a man is, the less mysterious existence seems to him. (Meaning)
Almost all of our sorrows spring out of our relations with other people. (Quote Meaning)
The two enemies of human happiness are pain and boredom. (Meaning)
Every man takes the limits of his own field of vision for the limits of the world. (Quote Meaning)
Every nation ridicules other nations, and all are right. (Meaning)
Money is human happiness in the abstract. (Quote Meaning)
To free a person from error is to give, not to take away. (Meaning)
We forfeit three-quarters of ourselves in order to be like other people. (Quote Meaning)
Change alone is eternal, perpetual, immortal. (Meaning)
Great men are like eagles, and build their nest on some lofty solitude. (Quote Meaning)
Compassion is the basis of morality. (Meaning)
Life is pain. (Quote Meaning)
The world is my idea. (Meaning)
It is difficult to find happiness within oneself, but it is impossible to find it anywhere else. (Quote Meaning)
A man can be himself only so long as he is alone; and if he does not love solitude, he will not love freedom; for it is only when he is alone that he is really free.
All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident. (Meaning)
The majority of men... are not capable of thinking, but only of believing, and... are not accessible to reason, but only to authority.
A pessimist is an optimist in full possession of the facts.
Talent hits a target no one else can hit; Genius hits a target no one else can see. (Quote Meaning)
You are free to do what you want, but you are not free to want what you want.
A high degree of intellect tends to make a man unsocial.
Just remember, once you're over the hill you begin to pick up speed.
Education perverts the mind since we are directly opposing the natural development of our mind by obtaining ideas first and observations last. This is why so few men of learning have such sound common sense as is quite common among the illiterate.
We seldom think of what we have but always of what we lack. Therefore, rather than grateful, we are bitter.
Man is never happy, but spends his whole life in striving after something which he thinks will make him so.
Life swings like a pendulum backward and forward between pain and boredom.
We can regard our life as a uselessly disturbing episode in the blissful repose of nothingness.
The person who writes for fools is always sure of a large audience. (Meaning)
Religion is the masterpiece of the art of animal training, for it trains people as to how they shall think.
The greatest of follies is to sacrifice health for any other kind of happiness.
To use many words to communicate few thoughts is everywhere the unmistakable sign of mediocrity. To gather much thought into few words stamps the man of genius.
What people commonly call fate is mostly their own stupidity.
Always to see the general in the particular is the very foundation of genius.
If God made the world, I would not be that God, for the misery of the world would break my heart.
The safest way of not being very miserable is not to expect to be very happy.
It is difficult to keep quiet if you have nothing to do
― Arthur Schopenhauer Quotes
Chief Editor
Tal Gur is an author, founder, and impact-driven entrepreneur at heart. After trading his daily grind for a life of his own daring design, he spent a decade pursuing 100 major life goals around the globe. His journey and most recent book, The Art of Fully Living, has led him to found Elevate Society.
