Arthur Schopenhauer Quotes About Pessimism
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Politeness is to human nature what warmth is to wax.
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The truth can wait, for it lives a long life.
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Reason is feminine in nature; it can only give after it has received.
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Dissimulation is innate in woman, and almost as much a quality of the stupid as of the clever.
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The fundament upon which all our knowledge and learning rests is the inexplicable.
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In truth the most striking figure for the relation of the two is that of the strong blind man carrying the sighted lame man on his shoulders.
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The bad thing about all religions is that, instead of being able to confess their allegorical nature, they have to conceal it.
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For an author to write as he speaks is just as reprehensible as the opposite fault, to speak as he writes; for this gives a pedantic effect to what he says, and at the same time makes him hardly intelligible.
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The greatest of follies is to sacrifice health for any other kind of happiness.
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Every time a man is begotten and born, the clock of human life is wound up anew to repeat once more its same old tune that has already been played innumerable times, movement by movement and measure by measure, with insignificant variations.
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It is only at the first encounter that a face makes its full impression on us.
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Opinion is like a pendulum and obeys the same law. If it goes past the centre of gravity on one side, it must go a like distance on the other; and it is only after a certain time that it finds the true point at which it can remain at rest.
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No doubt, when modesty was made a virtue, it was a very advantageous thing for the fools, for everybody is expected to speak of himself as if he were one.
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A man shows his character just in the way in which he deals with trifles, for then he is off his guard.
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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.
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Talent works for money and fame; the motive which moves genius to productivity is, on the other hand, less easy to determine.
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This actual world of what is knowable, in which we are and which is in us, remains both the material and the limit of our consideration.
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Men are by nature merely indifferent to one another; but women are by nature enemies.
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Life is short and truth works far and lives long: let us speak the truth.
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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?
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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.
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If a person is stupid, we excuse him by saying that he cannot help it; but if we attempted to excuse in precisely the same way the person who is bad, we should be laughed at.
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Intellect is invisible to the man who has none.
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Noise is the most impertinent of all forms of interruption. It is not only an interruption, but also a disruption of thought.
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There is no doubt that life is given us, not to be enjoyed, but to be overcome; to be got over.
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A man's face as a rule says more, and more interesting things, than his mouth, for it is a compendium of everything his mouth will ever say, in that it is the monogram of all this man's thoughts and aspirations.
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The best consolation in misfortune or affliction of any kind will be the thought of other people who are in a still worse plight than yourself; and this is a form of consolation open to every one. But what an awful fate this means for mankind as a whole! We are like lambs in a field, disporting themselves under the eye of the butcher, who chooses out first one and then another for his prey.
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Because people have no thoughts to deal in, they deal cards, and try and win one another's money. Idiots!
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Truth that is naked is the most beautiful, and the simpler its expression the deeper is the impression it makes.
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Every child is in a way a genius; and every genius is in a way a child.
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Arthur Schopenhauer
- Born: February 22, 1788
- Died: September 21, 1860
- Occupation: Philosopher
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