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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.

“Talent hits a target no one else can hit Genius hits a target no one else can see.”

— Arthur Schopenhauer

Intelligence

All Quotes by Arthur Schopenhauer

“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

“Every possession and every happiness is but lent by chance for an uncertain time, and may therefore be demanded back the next hour.”

— Arthur Schopenhauer

Happiness

“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

“As the biggest library if it is in disorder is not as useful as a small but well-arranged one, so you may accumulate a vast amount of knowledge but it will be of far less value than a much smaller amount if you have not thought it over for yourself.”

— Arthur Schopenhauer

Knowledge

“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

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

— Arthur Schopenhauer

Famous

“The fundament upon which all our knowledge and learning rests is the inexplicable.”

— Arthur Schopenhauer

Knowledge

“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

“In action a great heart is the chief qualification. In work, a great head.”

— Arthur Schopenhauer

Great

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

— Arthur Schopenhauer

Alone

“There is no absurdity so palpable but that it may be firmly planted in the human head if you only begin to inculcate it before the age of five, by constantly repeating it with an air of great solemnity.”

— Arthur Schopenhauer

Age

“Will power is to the mind like a strong blind man who carries on his shoulders a lame man who can see.”

— Arthur Schopenhauer

Power

“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 with trifles, and when he is off guard, that a man best reveals his character.”

— Arthur Schopenhauer

Best

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

— Arthur Schopenhauer

Death

“Great minds are related to the brief span of time during which they live as great buildings are to a little square in which they stand: you cannot see them in all their magnitude because you are standing too close to them.”

— Arthur Schopenhauer

Great

“Men are by nature merely indifferent to one another but women are by nature enemies.”

— Arthur Schopenhauer

Men

“Treat a work of art like a prince. Let it speak to you first.”

— Arthur Schopenhauer

Art

“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

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

— Arthur Schopenhauer

Nature