Arthur Schopenhauer

Every possession and every happiness is but lent by chance for an uncertain time, and may therefore be demanded back the next hour.

— Arthur Schopenhauer

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.

— Arthur Schopenhauer

To live alone is the fate of all great souls.

— Arthur Schopenhauer

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

— Arthur Schopenhauer

Suffering by nature or chance never seems so painful as suffering inflicted on us by the arbitrary will of another.

— Arthur Schopenhauer

After your death, you will be what you were before your birth.

— Arthur Schopenhauer

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

— Arthur Schopenhauer

Friends and acquaintances are the surest passport to fortune.

— Arthur Schopenhauer

The two enemies of human happiness are pain and boredom.

— Arthur Schopenhauer

Change alone is eternal, perpetual, immortal.

— Arthur Schopenhauer

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

— 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.

— Arthur Schopenhauer

The fundament upon which all our knowledge and learning rests is the inexplicable.

— Arthur Schopenhauer

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

— Arthur Schopenhauer

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

— Arthur Schopenhauer

Newspapers are the second hand of history. This hand, however, is usually not only of inferior metal to the other hands, it also seldom works properly.

— Arthur Schopenhauer

The greatest of follies is to sacrifice health for any other kind of happiness.

— Arthur Schopenhauer

Martyrdom is the only way a man can become famous without ability.

— Arthur Schopenhauer

In action a great heart is the chief qualification. In work, a great head.

— Arthur Schopenhauer

I've never known any trouble than an hour's reading didn't assuage.

— Arthur Schopenhauer

No one writes anything worth writing, unless he writes entirely for the sake of his subject.

— Arthur Schopenhauer

Truth is most beautiful undraped.

— Arthur Schopenhauer

There are, first of all, two kinds of authors: those who write for the subject's sake, and those who write for writing's sake. [...] The truth is that when an author begins to write for the sake of covering paper, he is cheating the reader; because he writes under the pretext that he has something to say.

— 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.

— Arthur Schopenhauer

Satisfaction consists in freedom from pain, which is the positive element of life.

— Arthur Schopenhauer

There is no absurdity so palpable but that it may be firmly planted in the human head if you only begin to inculcate it before the age of five, by constantly repeating it with an air of great solemnity.

— 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.

— Arthur Schopenhauer

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

— Arthur Schopenhauer

The doctor sees all the weakness of mankind; the lawyer all the wickedness, the theologian all the stupidity.

— Arthur Schopenhauer

Satisfaction consists in freedom from pain, which is the positive element of life.

— Arthur Schopenhauer

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 the world to which every man has a more unassailable title than to his own life and person.

— Arthur Schopenhauer

Change alone is eternal, perpetual, immortal.

— 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.

— Arthur Schopenhauer

Any foolish boy can stamp on a beetle, but all the professors in the world cannot make a beetle.

— Arthur Schopenhauer

Money is human happiness in the abstract; he, then, who is no longer capable of enjoying human happiness in the concrete devotes himself utterly to money.

— Arthur Schopenhauer

Hatred is an affair of the heart; contempt that of the head.

— 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.

— 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.

— 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.

— Arthur Schopenhauer

The fundament upon which all our knowledge and learning rests is the inexplicable.

— Arthur Schopenhauer

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

— Arthur Schopenhauer

Change alone is eternal, perpetual, immortal.

— Arthur Schopenhauer

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

— 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 than a much smaller amount if you have not thought it over for yourself.

— Arthur Schopenhauer

To live alone is the fate of all great souls.

— Arthur Schopenhauer

Every possession and every happiness is but lent by chance for an uncertain time, and may therefore be demanded back the next hour.

— Arthur Schopenhauer

Suffering by nature or chance never seems so painful as suffering inflicted on us by the arbitrary will of another.

— 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.

— Arthur Schopenhauer

Men are by nature merely indifferent to one another; but women are by nature enemies.

— Arthur Schopenhauer

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

Death is the true inspiring genius, or the muse of philosophy, wherefore Socrates has defined the latter as θανάτου μελέτη. Indeed without death men would scarcely philosophise.

— Arthur Schopenhauer

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

— Arthur Schopenhauer

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

— Arthur Schopenhauer

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

— Arthur Schopenhauer