1001Philosophers

Arthur Schopenhauer vs Friedrich Nietzsche on Life

Schopenhauer holds that life is essentially suffering produced by the blind striving of the will, and that the highest human achievement is its denial through asceticism, contemplation, and aesthetic detachment. Nietzsche came to see this as the final symptom of the Christian morality he wanted to overcome — a no-saying disposition disguised as wisdom — and proposed the affirmation of life in all its conditions, including its suffering, as its proper alternative.

About this topic

The question of what makes a life worth living runs through almost every philosophical tradition. Ancient philosophers identified the good life with virtue, contemplation, or the absence of disturbance; medieval thinkers tied it to the love of God and the order of creation; modern philosophers have located meaning in autonomy, projects, relationships, or self-creation. The quotes collected here range across all these strands, from Stoic counsels of resilience to existentialist treatments of meaning under conditions of uncertainty.

For a side-by-side overview of the two philosophers more broadly, see the full Arthur Schopenhauer vs Friedrich Nietzsche comparison. To browse philosophy more widely on this theme, see the Life quotes hub.

Representative quotes on life

Arthur Schopenhauer on life

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

    As attributed in Dictionary of Quotations from Ancient and Modern English and Foreign Sources (1899) by James Wood, p. 624

  • “Wealth is like sea-water; the more we drink, the thirstier we become.”

    E. Payne, trans. (1974) Vol. 1, p. 347

  • “Every parting gives a foretaste of death; every reunion a hint of the resurrection.”

    Jede Trennung gibt einen Vorgeschmack des Todes und jedes Wiedersehen einen Vorgeschmack der Auferstehung.

  • Attributed to Arthur Schopenhauer:

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

  • Attributed to Arthur Schopenhauer:

    “After your death you will be what you were before your birth.”

Friedrich Nietzsche on life

  • “I now myself live, in every detail, striving for wisdom, while I formerly merely worshipped and idolized the wise.”

    Letter to Mathilde Mayer, July 16, 1878, cited in Karl Jaspers , Nietzsche (Baltimore: 1997), p. 46

  • Attributed to Friedrich Nietzsche:

    “He who has a why to live for can bear with almost any how.”

  • Attributed to Friedrich Nietzsche:

    “What does not kill me makes me stronger.”

  • Attributed to Friedrich Nietzsche:

    “Without music, life would be a mistake.”

  • Attributed to Friedrich Nietzsche:

    “You must have chaos within you to give birth to a dancing star.”

All 7 Friedrich Nietzsche quotes on life →

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