Quotes from Arthur Schopenhauer

You must treat a work of art like a great man: stand before it and wait patiently till it deigns to speak.

...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.

Every nation ridicules other nations, and all are right.

Rudeness is better than any argument; it totally eclipses intellect.

The effect of music is so very much more powerful and penetrating than is that of the other arts, for these others speak only of the shadow, but music of the essence.

The general history of art and literature shows that the highest achievements of the human mind are, as a rule, not favourably received at first.

We should comfort ourselves with the masterpieces of art as with exalted personages-stand quietly before them and wait till they speak to us.

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

We should comport ourselves with the masterpieces of art as with exalted personages - stand quietly before them and wait till they speak to us.

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.

The middle ages showed us the results of thinking without experimentation, our present century shows us what experimentation without thinking leads to.

I believe that when death closes our eyes we shall awaken to a light, of which our sunlight is but the shadow.

There is not a grain of dust, not an atom that can become nothing, yet man believes that death is the annhilation of his being.

Animals hear about death for the first time when they die.

JedeTrennung gibt einenVorgeschmack desTodesund jedes Wiedersehen einenVorgeschmack der Auferstehung. Every parting is a foretaste of death, and every reunion a foretaste of resurrection.

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

Friends and acquaintances are the surest passport to fortune.

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.

To desire immortality is to desire the eternal perpetuation of a great mistake

Every satisfaction he attains lays the seeds of some new desire, so that there is no end to the wishes of each individual will.

Pride works _from within_; it is the direct appreciation of oneself. Vanity is the desire to arrive at this appreciation indirectly, from without.

Always to see the general in the particular is the very foundation of genius.

Education stuffs you full of ideas without the coinciding experience that gave rise to those ideas in the first place, giving you incorrect perspective and notions.

To forgive and forget means to throw away dearly bought experience.