Quotes from Arthur Schopenhauer

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

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.

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.

One should use common words to say uncommon things

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.

Der Mensch kann tun was er will; er kann aber nicht wollen was er will. Man can do what he wills but he cannot will what he wills.

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.

Life is a constant process of dying.

that when you're buying books, you're optimistically thinking you're buying the time to read them. (Paraphrase of Schopenhauer)

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

A sense of humour is the only divine quality of man

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

If children were brought into the world by an act of pure reason alone, would the human race continue to exist? Would not a man rather have so much sympathy with the coming generation as to spare it the burden of existence, or at any rate not take it upon himself to impose that burden upon it in cold blood?

It is a wise thing to be polite; consequently, it is a stupid thing to be rude. To make enemies by unnecessary and willful incivility, is just as insane a proceeding as to set your house on fire. For politeness is like a counter--an avowedly false coin, with which it is foolish to be stingy.

What disturbs and depresses young people is the hunt for happiness on the firm assumption that it must be met with in life. From this arises constantly deluded hope and so also dissatisfaction. Deceptive images of a vague happiness hover before us in our dreams, and we search in vain for their original. Much would have been gained if, through timely advice and instruction, young people could have had eradicated from their minds the erroneous notion that the world has a great deal to offer them.

It would be better if there were nothing. Since there is more pain than pleasure on earth, every satisfaction is only transitory, creating new desires and new distresses, and the agony of the devoured animal is always far greater than the pleasure of the devourer

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

Religion is the masterpiece of the art of animal training, for it trains people as to how they shall think.

Great men are like eagles, and build their nest on some lofty solitude

So the problem is not so much to see what nobody has yet seen, as to think what nobody has yet thought concerning that which everybody sees.

To find out your real opinion of someone, judge the impression you have when you first see a letter from them.

We forfeit three-quarters of ourselves in order to be like other people.

The difficulty is to try and teach the multitude that something can be true and untrue at the same time.

As a general rule, the longer a man's fame is likely to last, the later it will be in coming; for all excellent products require time for their development.