Quotes By Arthur Schopenhauer

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.

Music is the melody whose text is the world.

National character is only another name for the particular form which the littleness, perversity and baseness of mankind take in every country. Every nation mocks at other nations, and all are right.

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.

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

Will minus intellect constitutes vulgarity.

A man can be himself only so long as he is alone.

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

Change alone is eternal, perpetual, immortal.

If we were not all so interested in ourselves, life would be so uninteresting that none of us would be able to endure it.

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

The longer a man's fame is likely to last, the longer it will be in coming.

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.

Reading is equivalent to thinking with someone else's head instead of with one's own.

The wise have always said the same things, and fools, who are the majority have always done just the opposite.

Patriotism, when it wants to make itself felt in the domain of learning, is a dirty fellow who should be thrown out of doors.

Wealth is like sea-water; the more we drink, the thirstier we become; and the same is true of fame.

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

Almost all of our sorrows spring out of our relations with other people.

The two enemies of human happiness are pain and boredom.

Every nation ridicules other nations, and all are right.

The alchemists in their search for gold discovered many other things of greater value.

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.

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 word of man is the most durable of all material.

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

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.

Rascals are always sociable, more's the pity! and the chief sign that a man has any nobility in his character is the little pleasure he takes in others' company.