Arthur Schopenhauer was a German philosopher. He is best known for his 1818 work The World as Will and Representation, wherein he characterizes the phenomenal world as the product of a blind and insatiable metaphysical will. Profoundly inspirational Schopenhauer quotes will challenge the way you think, and make your life worth living.
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Famous Schopenhauer Quotes
Truth that is naked is the most beautiful, and the simpler its expression the deeper is the impression it makes.
A man can be himself only so long as he is alone. Arthur Schopenhauer.
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.
The closing years of life are like the end of a masquerade party when the masks are dropped. Arthur Schopenhauer.
In early youth, as we contemplate our coming life, we are like children in a theater before the curtain is raised, sitting there in high spirits and eagerly waiting for the play to begin.
In our monogamous part of the world, to marry means to halve one’s rights and double one’s duties. Arthur Schopenhauer
Reading is merely a surrogate for thinking for yourself; it means letting someone else direct your thoughts.
Wicked thoughts and worthless efforts gradually set their mark on the face, especially the eyes. Arthur Schopenhauer.
Every man takes the limits of his own field of vision for the limits of the world.
It is only at the first encounter that a face makes its full impression on us. Arthur Schopenhauer.
Mostly it is loss which teaches us about the worth of things. Arthur Schopenhauer
This our world, which is so real, with all its suns and milky ways is nothing.
What people commonly call fate is mostly their own stupidity. Arthur Schopenhauer.
There are 80,000 prostitutes in London alone and what are they, if not bloody sacrifices on the altar of monogamy?
It’s the niceties that make the difference fate gives us the hand, and we play the cards. Arthur Schopenhauer.
Because people have no thoughts to deal in, they deal cards, and try and win one another’s money. Idiots!
There is not much to be got anywhere in the world. It is filled with misery and pain. Arthur Schopenhauer
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.
A poet or philosopher should have no fault to find with his age if it only permits him to do his work undisturbed in his own corner. Arthur Schopenhauer
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.
The person who writes for fools is always sure of a large audience. Arthur Schopenhauer.
Journalists are like dogs, when ever anything moves they begin to bark.
No one writes anything worth writing, unless he writes entirely for the sake of his subject. Arthur Schopenhauer
The business of the novelist is not to relate great events, but to make small ones interesting.
Men are by nature merely indifferent to one another; but women are by nature enemies. Arthur Schopenhauer
The person who writes for fools is always sure of a large audience.
We seldom think of what we have, but always of what we lack. Arthur Schopenhauer
The first forty years of life give us the text; the next thirty supply the commentary on it.
Life is a constant process of dying. Arthur Schopenhauer
When, in some dreadful and ghastly dream, we reach the moment of greatest horror, it awakes us; thereby banishing all the hideous shapes that were born of the night. And life is a dream: when the moment of greatest horror compels us to break it off, the same thing happens.
All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self evident. Arthur Schopenhauer
A man shows his character just in the way in which he deals with trifles-for then he is off his guard.
We can regard our life as a uselessly disturbing episode in the blissful repose of nothingness. Arthur Schopenhauer.
The greatest achievements of the human mind are generally received with distrust.
Everyone takes the limits of his own vision for the limits of the world. Arthur Schopenhauer.
The fundament upon which all our knowledge and learning rests is the inexplicable.
No rose without a thorn but many a thorn without a rose. Arthur Schopenhauer.
Every nation ridicules other nations, and all are right.
If a man does not love solitude, he will not love freedom; for it is only when he is alone that he is really free. Arthur Schopenhauer
The intellectual attainments of a man who thinks for himself resemble a fine painting, where the light and shade are correct, the tone sustained, the color perfectly harmonized; it is true to life. On the other hand, the intellectual attainments of the mere man of learning are like a large palette, full of all sorts of colors, which at most are systematically arranged, but devoid of harmony, connection and meaning.
It is a clear gain to sacrifice pleasure in order to avoid pain. Arthur Schopenhauer
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.
There is no doubt that life is given us, not to be enjoyed, but to be overcome; to be got over. Arthur Schopenhauer
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.
The difficulty is to try and teach the multitude that something can be true and untrue at the same time. Arthur Schopenhauer
Thus, the task is not so much to see what no one yet has seen, but to think what nobody yet has thought about that which everybody sees.
Satisfaction consists in freedom from pain, which is the positive element of life. Arthur Schopenhauer
Just as one spoils the stomach by overfeeding and thereby impairs the whole body, so can one overload and choke the mind by giving it too much nourishment.
Happiness consists in frequent repetition of pleasure. Arthur Schopenhauer
Truth that has been merely learned is like an artificial limb, a false tooth, a waxen nose; at best, like a nose made out of another’s flesh; it adheres to us only ‘because it is put on. But truth acquired by thinking of our own is like a natural limb; it alone really belongs to us.
The safest way of not being very miserable is not to expect to be very happy. Arthur Schopenhauer
To live alone is the fate of all great souls.
Money is human happiness in the abstract. Arthur Schopenhauer
A man can do what he wants, but not want what he wants.
Wealth is like sea water; the more we drink, the thirstier we become; and the same is true of fame. Arthur Schopenhauer
Opinion is like a pendulum and obeys the same law. If it goes past the center of gravity on one side, it must go a like distance on the other; and it is only after a certain time that it finds the true point at which it can remain at rest.
It is difficult to find happiness within oneself, but it is impossible to find it anywhere else. Arthur Schopenhauer
Talent hits a target no one else can hit; Genius hits a target no one else can see.
The two enemies of human happiness are pain and boredom. Arthur Schopenhauer
The more unintelligent a man is, the less mysterious existence seems to him.
The greatest of follies is to sacrifice health for any other kind of happiness. Arthur Schopenhauer
A genuine work of art, can never be false, nor can it be discredited through the lapse of time, for it does not present an opinion but the thing itself.
Religion is the masterpiece of the art of animal training, for it trains people as to how they shall think. Arthur Schopenhauer
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 to you than a much smaller amount if you have not thought it over for yourself.
Men are the devils of the earth, and the animals are the tormented souls. Arthur Schopenhauer
What a person is for himself, what abides with him in his loneliness and isolation, and what no one can give or take away from him, this is obviously more essential for him than everything that he possesses or what he may be in the eyes of others.
The bad thing about all religions is that, instead of being able to confess their allegorical nature, they have to conceal it. Arthur Schopenhauer
Great men are like eagles, and build their nest on some lofty solitude.
To call the world God is not to explain it; it is only to enrich our language with a superfluous synonym. Arthur Schopenhauer
After your death you will be what you were before your birth.
Philosophy of religion really amounts to philosophizing on certain favorite assumptions that are not confirmed at all. Arthur Schopenhauer
Treat a work of art like a prince: let it speak to you first.
Pantheism is only a polite form of atheism. Arthur Schopenhauer.
However, for the man who studies to gain insight, books and studies are merely rungs of the ladder on which he climbs to the summit of knowledge. As soon as a rung has raised him up one step, he leaves it behind. On the other hand, the many who study in order to fill their memory do not use the rungs of the ladder for climbing, but take them off and load themselves with them to take away, rejoicing at the increasing weight of the burden. They remain below forever, because they bear what should have borne them.
Religions are the children of ignorance, and they do not long survive their mother. Arthur Schopenhauer
Truth is no harlot who throws her arms round the neck of him who does not desire her; on the contrary, she is so coy a beauty that even the man who sacrifices everything to her can still not be certain of her favors.
The brain may be regarded as a kind of parasite of the organism, a pensioner, as it were, who dwells with the body. Arthur Schopenhauer
Change alone is eternal, perpetual, immortal.
After your death you will be what you were before your birth. Arthur Schopenhauer.
It is a clear gain to sacrifice pleasure in order to avoid pain.
Sleep is the interest we have to pay on the capital which is called in at death. Arthur Schopenhauer
Just remember, once you’re over the hill you begin to pick up speed.
To desire immortality is to desire the eternal perpetuation of a great mistake. Arthur Schopenhauer
The closing years of life are like a masquerade party, when the masks are dropped.
Life swings like a pendulum backward and forward between pain and boredom. Arthur Schopenhauer
