115 Arthur Schopenhauer Quotes From 'The Artist's Philosopher'

Moumita Dutta
Dec 12, 2023 By Moumita Dutta
Originally Published on Mar 10, 2021
Edited by Jacob Fitzbright
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Arthur Schopenhauer - German philosopher

Arthur Schopenhauer was a philosopher and author from Germany.

Arthur Schopenhauer was best known for 'The World As Will And Representation' which he wrote in the year 1818. The book depicts that society is made of metaphysical and delusion whims.

Known as the 'The Artist's Philosopher', Arthur Schopenhauer quotes have been quoted and used by people for a long time. These quotes by Arthur Schopenhauer include Schopenhauer quotes on love.

If you like these quotes, then do take a look at Kant quotes and Sigmund Freud quotes.

Arthur Schopenhauer Quotes On Self Introspection

We all need to look into our souls from time to time, and these Arthur Schopenhauer quotes will help you do just that.

1. "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."

- Arthur Schopenhauer.

2. "For our improvement we need a mirror."

- Arthur Schopenhauer.

3. "Compassion is the basis of morality."

- Arthur Schopenhauer.

4. "Will minus intellect constitutes vulgarity."

- Arthur Schopenhauer.

5. "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."

- Arthur Schopenhauer.

6. "This world could not have been the work of an all-loving being, but that of a devil, who had brought creatures into existence in order to delight in the sight of their sufferings."

- Arthur Schopenhauer.

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

- Arthur Schopenhauer.

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

- Arthur Schopenhauer.

9. "Hope is the confusion of the desire for a thing with its probability."

- Arthur Schopenhauer.

10. "Life without pain has no meaning."

- Arthur Schopenhauer.

11. "Marrying means to halve one's rights and double one's duties."

- Arthur Schopenhauer.

12. "Life is full of troubles and vexations, that one must either rise above it by means of corrected thoughts, or leave it."

- Arthur Schopenhauer.

13. "The majority of men are not capable of thinking, but only of believing, and are not accessible to reason, but only to authority."

- Arthur Schopenhauer.

14. "A man who has not enough originality to think out a new title for his book will be much less capable of giving it new contents."

- Arthur Schopenhauer.

15. "Life is short and truth works far and lives long: let us speak the truth."

- Arthur Schopenhauer.

16. "Sleep is the interest we have to pay on the capital which is called in at death; and the higher the rate of interest and the more regularly it is paid, the further the date of redemption is postponed."

- Arthur Schopenhauer.

17. "It is easy to explain that man loves above everything else an existence which is full of want."

- Arthur Schopenhauer.

18. "Honor means that a man is not exceptional; fame, that he is. Fame is something which must be won; honor, only something which must not be lost."

- Arthur Schopenhauer.

19. "If children were brought into the world by an act of pure reason alone, would the human race continue to exist?"

- Arthur Schopenhauer.

20. "Ordinary people merely think how they shall 'spend' their time; a man of talent tries to 'use' it."

- Arthur Schopenhauer.

21. "The truth can wait, for she lives a long life."

- Arthur Schopenhauer.

22. "If a man wants to read good books, he must make a point of avoiding bad ones; for life is short, and time and energy limited."

- Arthur Schopenhauer.

23. "Every child is in a way a genius; and every genius is in a way a child."

- Arthur Schopenhauer.

Arthur Schopenhauer Quotes On Pain

child connecting puzzle

Everyone experiences grief at some point in their life. These Arthur Schopenhauer quotes will never make you feel lonely.

24. "Moroseness and melancholy are very opposite in nature; and melancholy is more nearly related to happiness than to moroseness."

- Arthur Schopenhauer.

25. "The will to live, which forms the innermost kernel of every living being, is most distinctly apparent in the highest, that is to say in the cleverest, order of animals..."

- Arthur Schopenhauer, 'Psychological Observations'.

26. "Our existence is based solely on the ever-fleeting present."

- Arthur Schopenhauer, 'The Emptiness Of Existence'.

27. "Life is deeply steeped in suffering, and cannot escape from it."

- Arthur Schopenhauer.

28. "The two enemies of human happiness are pain and boredom."

- Arthur Schopenhauer.

29. "The present may be compared to a small dark cloud driven by the wind over the sunny plain."

- Arthur Schopenhauer.

30. "A book can never be anything more than the impression of its author's thoughts."

- Arthur Schopenhauer, 'On Authorship And Style'.

31. "If suffering is not the first and immediate object of our life, then our existence is the most inexpedient and inappropriate thing in the world."

- Arthur Schopenhauer.

32. "Boredom is just the reverse side of fascination: both depend on being outside rather than inside a situation, and one leads to the other."

- Arthur Schopenhauer.

31. "If there is no final end of striving, there is no measure and end of suffering."

- Arthur Schopenhauer.

33. "It is a clear gain to sacrifice pleasure in order to avoid pain."

- Arthur Schopenhauer.

34. "No man has ever felt perfectly happy in the present; if he had it would have intoxicated him."

- Arthur Schopenhauer, 'The Emptiness Of Existence'.

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

- Arthur Schopenhauer.

36. "It would be better if there were nothing. Since there is more pain than pleasure on earth."

- Arthur Schopenhauer.

37. "No rose without a thorn but many a thorn without a rose."

- Arthur Schopenhauer.

38. "Every separation gives a foretaste of death, and every meeting a foretaste of the resurrection."

- Arthur Schopenhauer.

39. "We seldom think of what we have but always of what we lack. Therefore, rather than grateful, we are bitter."

- Arthur Schopenhauer.

40. "For the world is Hell, and men are on the one hand the tormented souls and on the other the devils in it."

- Arthur Schopenhauer.

41. "A pessimist is an optimist in full possession of the facts."

- Arthur Schopenhauer.

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

- Arthur Schopenhauer.

43. "Man is the only animal who causes pain to others with no other object than wanting to do so."

- Arthur Schopenhauer.

44. "Intellect is invisible to the man who has none."

- Arthur Schopenhauer.

45. "If God made the world, I would not be that God, for the misery of the world would break my heart."

- Arthur Schopenhauer.

Arthur Schopenhauer Quotes On Success

If you want to be successful in life, you should take cue from these amazing Arthur Schopenhauer quotes.

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

- Arthur Schopenhauer.

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

- Arthur Schopenhauer.

49. "Ignorance is degrading only when it is found in company with riches."

- Arthur Schopenhauer, 'On Reading And Books'.

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

- Arthur Schopenhauer.

51. "Thinking must be kindled like a fire by a draught and sustained by some kind of interest in the subject."

- Arthur Schopenhauer, 'Thinking For Oneself'.

52. "The world is my idea."

- Arthur Schopenhauer.

53. "So the first and most essential element in our life's happiness is what we are, our personality."

- Arthur Schopenhauer, 'Wisdom Of Life'.

54. "Moral character alone remains inaccessible to Time."

- Arthur Schopenhauer, 'Wisdom Of Life'.

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

- Arthur Schopenhauer.

56. "Just remember, once you're over the hill you begin to pick up speed."

- Arthur Schopenhauer.

57. "Reading is merely a substitute for one's own thoughts."

- Arthur Schopenhauer, 'Thinking For Oneself'.

58. "What people commonly call fate is mostly their own stupidity."

- Arthur Schopenhauer.

59. "The presence of a thought is like the presence of our beloved."

- Arthur Schopenhauer, 'Thinking For Oneself'.

60. "In every kind of enjoyment, for instance, the pleasure depends principally upon the man himself."

- Arthur Schopenhauer.

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

- Arthur Schopenhauer.

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

- Arthur Schopenhauer.

63. "The chief sign that a man has any nobility in his character is the little pleasure he takes in others' company."

- Arthur Schopenhauer.

64. "Will power is to the mind like a strong blind man who carries on his shoulders a lame man who can see."

- Arthur Schopenhauer.

65. "First it is ridiculed, Second it is violently opposed, finally it is accepted as self-evident."

- Arthur Schopenhauer.

66. "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."

- Arthur Schopenhauer, 'On Authorship And Style'.

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

- Arthur Schopenhauer.

68. "Genius and madness have something in common: both live in a world that is different from that which exists for everyone else."

- Arthur Schopenhauer.

69. "Thus, the task is not so much to see what no one yet has seen, but to think what nobody yet has thought about that which everybody sees."

- Arthur Schopenhauer.

Arthur Schopenhauer Quotes On Life

Arthur Schopenhauer quotes beautifully depict the intricacies and philosophies of life and death. Here are a few such quotes for you.

70. "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.

71. "The first forty years of life give us the text; the next thirty supply the commentary on it."

- Arthur Schopenhauer.

72. "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.

73. "After your death you will be what you were before your birth."

- Arthur Schopenhauer.

74. "Life swings like a pendulum backward and forward between pain and boredom."

- Arthur Schopenhauer.

75. "Every parting gives a foretaste of death, every reunion a hint of the resurrection."

- Arthur Schopenhauer.

76. "A man can do what he wants, but not want what he wants."

- Arthur Schopenhauer.

77. "A man may be perfectly sound in his physique and still possess a melancholy temperament and be generally given up to sad thoughts."

- Arthur Schopenhauer.

78. "Politeness is to human nature what warmth is to wax."

- Arthur Schopenhauer.

79. "There is no doubt that life is given us, not to be enjoyed, but to be overcome, to be got over."

- Arthur Schopenhauer.

80. "Every man takes the limits of his own field of vision for the limits of the world."

- Arthur Schopenhauer.

81. "We can regard our life as a uselessly disturbing episode in the blissful repose of nothingness."

- Arthur Schopenhauer.

82. "Change alone is eternal, perpetual, immortal."

- Arthur Schopenhauer.

83. "The present is the only reality and the only certainty."

- Arthur Schopenhauer.

84. "After your death you will be what you were before your birth."

- Arthur Schopenhauer.

85. "Life itself is a sea full of rocks and whirlpools that man avoids with the greatest caution and care."

- Arthur Schopenhauer.

86. "To live alone is the fate of all great souls."

- Arthur Schopenhauer.

87. "Buying books would be a good thing if we also could buy the time to read them."

- Arthur Schopenhauer.

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

- Arthur Schopenhauer.

90. "Life is a constant process of dying."

- Arthur Schopenhauer.

91. "The shortness of life, so often lamented, may be the best thing about it."

- Arthur Schopenhauer.

92. "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.

Arthur Schopenhauer Quotes On Happiness

This list of Arthur Schopenhauer quotes will make you laugh and some of these will be like a warm hug for your heart. Keep reading.

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

- Arthur Schopenhauer.

94. "Beauty is partly an affair of health."

- Arthur Schopenhauer.

95. "Happiness consists in frequent repetition of pleasure."

- Arthur Schopenhauer.

96. "Deceptive images of a vague happiness hover before us in our dreams, and we search in vain for their original."

- Arthur Schopenhauer.

97. "A sense of humor is the only divine quality of man."

- Arthur Schopenhauer.

98. "The safest way of not being very miserable is not to expect to be very happy."

- Arthur Schopenhauer.

99. "Money is human happiness in the abstract."

- Arthur Schopenhauer.

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

- Arthur Schopenhauer.

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

- Arthur Schopenhauer.

102. "Music is the melody whose text is the world."

- Arthur Schopenhauer.

103. "To overcome difficulties is to experience the full delight of existence."

- Arthur Schopenhauer.

104. "Friends and acquaintances are the surest passport to fortune."

- Arthur Schopenhauer.

105. "Man is never happy, but spends his whole life in striving after something which he thinks will make him so."

- Arthur Schopenhauer.

106. "Pleasure is never as pleasant as we expected it to be."

- Arthur Schopenhauer.

107. "Happiness lies always in the future, or else in the past."

- Arthur Schopenhauer.

108. "A man of genius can hardly be sociable, for what dialogues could indeed be so intelligent and entertaining as his own monologues?"

- Arthur Schopenhauer.

109. "There is only one inborn error, and that is, that we exist in order to be happy."

- Arthur Schopenhauer.

110. "Every nation ridicules other nations, and all are right."

- Arthur Schopenhauer.

111. "In the first place, no one is happy, but everyone throughout his life strives for an alleged happiness that is rarely attained, and even then only to disappoint him."

- Arthur Schopenhauer.

112. "Restlessness is the hallmark of existence."

- Arthur Schopenhauer.

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

- Arthur Schopenhauer.

114. "Faith is like love: it does not let itself be forced."

- Arthur Schopenhauer.

115. "Himself is the source of the best and most a man can be or achieve."

- Arthur Schopenhauer.

Here at Kidadl, we have carefully created lots of interesting family-friendly quotes for everyone to enjoy! If you liked our suggestions for Arthur Schopenhauer quotes then why not take a look at Wittgenstein quotes, or 'Zen And The Art Of Motorcycle Maintenance' quotes.

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Written by Moumita Dutta

Bachelor of Arts specializing in Journalism and Mass Communication, Postgraduate Diploma in Sports Management

Moumita Dutta picture

Moumita DuttaBachelor of Arts specializing in Journalism and Mass Communication, Postgraduate Diploma in Sports Management

A content writer and editor with a passion for sports, Moumita has honed her skills in producing compelling match reports and stories about sporting heroes. She holds a degree in Journalism and Mass Communication from the Indian Institute of Social Welfare and Business Management, Calcutta University, alongside a postgraduate diploma in Sports Management.

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