Arthur Schopenhauer Quotes



Best 29 Quotes by Arthur Schopenhauer

“A high degree of intellect tends to make a man unsocial.”

“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.”

“A sense of humour is the only divine quality of man.”

“All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.”

“Compassion is the basis of morality.”

“Every miserable fool who has nothing at all of which he can be proud, adopts as a last resource pride in the nation to which he belongs; he is ready and happy to defend all its faults and follies tooth and nail, thus reimbursing himself for his own inferiority.”

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

“Happiness consists in frequent repetition of pleasure.”

“If you come across any special trait of meanness or stupidity you must be careful not to let it annoy or distress you, but to look upon it merely as an addition to your knowledge — a new fact to be considered in studying the character of humanity.

Your attitude towards it will be that of the mineralogist who stumbles upon a very characteristic specimen of a mineral.”

“It is a clear gain to sacrifice pleasure in order to avoid pain.”

“It is difficult to find happiness within oneself, but it is impossible to find it anywhere else.”

“Life is a constant process of dying.”

“Mostly it is loss which teaches us about the worth of things.”

“One should use common words to say uncommon things.”

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

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

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“Commitment is an act, not a word.”


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“The closing years of life are like the end of a masquerade party when the masks are dropped. ”

“They tell us that suicide is the greatest piece of cowardice. That suicide is wrong; when it is quite obvious that there is nothing in this world to which every man has a more unassailable title than to his own life and person.”

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

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

“We forfeit three-fourths of ourselves in order to be like other people.”

“When you're buying books, you're optimistically thinking you're buying the time to read them.”

Essays and Aphorisms Quotes

“Man can do what he wills but he cannot will what he wills.”

Essays and Aphorisms

“The art of not reading is a very important one. It consists in not taking an interest in whatever may be engaging the attention of the general public at any particular time. When some political or ecclesiastical pamphlet, or novel, or poem is making a great commotion, you should remember that he who writes for fools always finds a large public. A precondition for reading good books is not reading bad ones: for life is short.”

Essays and Aphorisms

“When we read, another person thinks for us: we merely repeat his mental process. In learning to write, the pupil goes over with his pen what the teacher has outlined in pencil: so in reading; the greater part of the work of thought is already done for us. This is why it relieves us to take up a book after being occupied with our own thoughts. And in reading, the mind is, in fact, only the playground of another’s thoughts. So it comes about that if anyone spends almost the whole day in reading, and by way of relaxation devotes the intervals to some thoughtless pastime, he gradually loses the capacity for thinking; just as the man who always rides, at last forgets how to walk. This is the case with many learned persons: they have read themselves stupid.”

Essays and Aphorisms

Religion Quotes

“The person who writes for fools is always sure of a large audience.”

Religion

Studies in Pessimism Quotes

“Every man takes the limits of his own field of vision for the limits of the world.”

Studies in Pessimism

The Basis of Morality Quotes

“Compassion for animals is intimately associated with goodness of character, and it may be confidently asserted that he who is cruel to animals cannot be a good man.”

The Basis of Morality

“The assumption that animals are without rights and the illusion that our treatment of them has no moral significance is a positively outrageous example of Western crudity and barbarity. Universal compassion is the only guarantee of morality.”

The Basis of Morality

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“The possible ranks higher than the actual.”


More quotes by Martin Heidegger