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Arthur Schopenhauer

42 quotes

Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860) was a German philosopher best known for his work *The World as Will and Representation*. His philosophy, which emphasized the role of human desire and will as the driving force behind suffering, deeply influenced later thinkers including Nietzsche, Freud, and Wittgenstein.

“Politeness is to human nature what warmth is to wax.”

— Arthur Schopenhauer

Nature

All Quotes by Arthur Schopenhauer

“Suffering by nature or chance never seems so painful as suffering inflicted on us by the arbitrary will of another.”

— Arthur Schopenhauer

Nature

“We can come to look upon the deaths of our enemies with as much regret as we feel for those of our friends, namely, when we miss their existence as witnesses to our success.”

— Arthur Schopenhauer

Success

“Each day is a little life: every waking and rising a little birth, every fresh morning a little youth, every going to rest and sleep a little death.”

— Arthur Schopenhauer

Death

“Money is human happiness in the abstract he, then, who is no longer capable of enjoying human happiness in the concrete devotes himself utterly to money.”

— Arthur Schopenhauer

Happiness

“It is only a man's own fundamental thoughts that have truth and life in them. For it is these that he really and completely understands. To read the thoughts of others is like taking the remains of someone else's meal, like putting on the discarded clothes of a stranger.”

— Arthur Schopenhauer

Truth

“To live alone is the fate of all great souls.”

— Arthur Schopenhauer

Alone

“The discovery of truth is prevented more effectively, not by the false appearance things present and which mislead into error, not directly by weakness of the reasoning powers, but by preconceived opinion, by prejudice.”

— Arthur Schopenhauer

Truth

“Martyrdom is the only way a man can become famous without ability.”

— Arthur Schopenhauer

Famous

“A man can be himself only so long as he is alone.”

— Arthur Schopenhauer

Alone

“Because people have no thoughts to deal in, they deal cards, and try and win one another's money. Idiots!”

— Arthur Schopenhauer

Money

“Politeness is to human nature what warmth is to wax.”

— Arthur Schopenhauer

Nature

“Buying books would be a good thing if one could also buy the time to read them in: but as a rule the purchase of books is mistaken for the appropriation of their contents.”

— Arthur Schopenhauer

Good

“Newspapers are the second hand of history. This hand, however, is usually not only of inferior metal to the other hands, it also seldom works properly.”

— Arthur Schopenhauer

History

“Patriotism, when it wants to make itself felt in the domain of learning, is a dirty fellow who should be thrown out of doors.”

— Arthur Schopenhauer

Learning

“Nature shows that with the growth of intelligence comes increased capacity for pain, and it is only with the highest degree of intelligence that suffering reaches its supreme point.”

— Arthur Schopenhauer

Intelligence

“After your death you will be what you were before your birth.”

— Arthur Schopenhauer

Death

“Change alone is eternal, perpetual, immortal.”

— Arthur Schopenhauer

Alone

“Great men are like eagles, and build their nest on some lofty solitude.”

— Arthur Schopenhauer

Great

“With people of limited ability modesty is merely honesty. But with those who possess great talent it is hypocrisy.”

— Arthur Schopenhauer

Great

“Hatred is an affair of the heart contempt that of the head.”

— Arthur Schopenhauer

Anger