Quotes from Arthur Schopenhauer

Si llamáramos a las tumbas y preguntáramos a los muertos si les gustaría levantarse otra vez, nos dirían que no.

How very learned many a man would be if he knew everything that was in his own books! The

People need external activity because they have no internal activity... [Hence] the restlessness of those who have nothing to do, and their aimless traveling. What drives them from country to country is the same boredom which at home drives them together into such crowds and heaps it is funny to see.

Cada um será tanto mais sociável quanto mais pobre for de espírito, e, em geral, mais vulgar (o que torna o homem saudável é justamente a sua pobreza interior). Pois, no mundo, não se tem muito além da escolha entre solidão e a vulgaridade.

Were I a King, my prime command would be—Leave me alone.

To be irritated by trifles, a man must be well off; for in misfortunes trifles are unfelt. SECTION

The more clearly you become conscious of the frailty, vanity and dream-like quality of all things, the more clearly will you also become conscious of the eternity of your own inner being; because it is only in contrast to this that the aforesaid quality of things becomes evident, just as you perceive the speed at which a ship is going only when looking at the motionless shore, not when looking into the ship itself.

Far-sighted, rational deliberation usually comes out in favour of one decision, while immediate inclination comes out for the other. As long as we have to be passive, the balance seems tilted in favour of reason; but we can see in advance how strongly we will be pulled by the other side when the opportunity for acting arises.

You can never read bad literature too little, nor good literature too much.

If anyone wishes for entertainment, such as will prevent him feeling solitary even when he is alone, let me recommend the company of dogs, whose moral and intellectual qualities may almost afford delight and gratification.

The differences which come under the first head are those which Nature herself has set between man and man;

We, the salt of the earth, should endeavor to follow, by never letting anything disturb us in the pursuit of our intellectual life, however much the storm of the world may invade and agitate our personal environment.

Hatred comes from the heart; contempt from the head; and neither feeling is quite within our control. For we cannot alter our heart; its basis is determined by motives; and our head deals with objective facts, and applies to them rules which are immutable. Any given individual is the union of a particular heart with a particular head.

Moreover, she is intellectually short-sighted, for although her intuitive understanding quickly perceives what is near to her, on the other hand her circle of vision is limited and does not embrace anything that is remote; hence everything that is absent or past, or in the future, affects women in a less degree than men. This is why they have greater inclination for extravagance, which sometimes borders on madness.

To live alone is the fate of all great souls

Fame is something which must be won; honor, only something which must not be lost.

Mankind is growing out of religion as out of its childhood clothes. - On Religion

Die, welche schwierige, dunkle, verflochtene, zweideutige Reden zusammensetzen, wissen ganz gewiss nicht recht, was sie sagen wollen, sondern haben nur ein dumpfes, nach einem Gedanken erst ringendes Bewusstsein davon; oft aber wollen sie sich selber und anderen verbergen, dass sie eigentlich nichts zu sagen haben.

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.

You should deal sternly and despotically with your memory, so that it does not unlearn obedience; if, for example, you cannot call something to mind, a line of poetry or a word perhaps, you should not go and look it up in a book, but periodically plague your memory with it for weeks on end until your memory has done its duty. For the longer you have had to rack your brains for something the more firmly will it stay once you have got it.

Do mesmo modo que o papel-moeda circula no lugar da prata, também no mundo, no lugar da estima verdadeira e da amizade autêntica, circulam as suas demonstrações exteriores e os seus gestos imitados do modo mais natural possível. Por outro lado, poder-se-ia perguntar se há pessoas que de facto merecem essa estima e essa amizade. Em todo o caso, dou mais valor aos abanos de cauda de um cão leal do que a cem daquelas demonstrações e gestos.

In general, however, grand opera, by more and more deadening our musical receptivity through its three-hours duration and at the same time putting our patience to the test through the snail's pace of what is usually a very trite action, is in itself intrinsically and essentially boring; which failing can be overcome only by the excessive excellence of an individual achievement: that is why in this genre only the masterpieces are enjoyable and everything mediocre is unendurable.

I live not in myself, but I become Portion of that around me; and to me High mountains are a feeling.

We should not be surprised by marriages between people who would never have been friends: Love…casts itself on people who, apart from sex, would be hateful, contemptible, and even abhorrent to us. But the will of the species is so much more powerful than that of individuals, that lovers overlook everything, misjudge everything, and bind themselves forever to an object of misery.