Arthur Schopenhauer Quotes
Arthur Schopenhauer was a 19th-century German philosopher best known for his metaphysical pessimism and his theory of the world as will and representation. The World as Will and Representation argues that the underlying reality of all phenomena is a blind, striving will, and that human suffering is an inevitable consequence of this fundamental nature. The quotes below are attributed to Arthur Schopenhauer, organized by topic.
Browse Arthur Schopenhauer by topic
Arthur Schopenhauer on Death
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“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:
“After your death you will be what you were before your birth.”
Arthur Schopenhauer on Freedom
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Attributed to Arthur Schopenhauer:
“A man can be himself only so long as he is alone.”
Arthur Schopenhauer on God
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“It is the courage to make a clean breast of it in the face of every question that distinguishes the philosopher . He must be like Sophocles ' Oedipus , who, seeking enlightenment concerning his terrible fate, pursues his indefatigable inquiry even though he divines that appalling horror awaits him in the answer. But most of us carry with us the Jocasta in our hearts, who begs Oedipus, for God's sake, not to inquire further.”
Letter to Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (November 1815) [ citation needed ] -
“Suzanne L. Marchand - German Orientalism in the Age of Empire. Religion, Race, and Scholarship-Cambridge University Press (2009)”
Think of the fanaticism, the endless persecutions, the religious wars, that sanguinary frenzy of which the ancients had no conception! Think of the crusades, a butchery lasting two hundred years and inexcusable, its war cry “It is the will of God,” its object to gain possession of the grave of one who preached love and sufferance; think of the cruel expul- sion and extermination of the Moors and J -
“Suzanne L. Marchand - German Orientalism in the Age of Empire. Religion, Race, and Scholarship-Cambridge University Press (2009)”
In an essay on ‘“The Christian System,” he argued that the visions of the Old and New Testament are so unalike that the latter “‘must be in some way traceable to an Indian source: its ethical system, its ascetic view of morality, its pessimism and its Avatar, are all thoroughly Indian. -
“When the Church says that, in the dogmas of religion , reason is totally incompetent and blind, and its use to be reprehended, this really attests the fact that these dogmas are allegorical in their nature, and are not to be judged by the standard which reason, taking all things sensu proprio , can alone apply. Now the absurdities of a dogma are just the mark and sign of what is allegorical and my”
The Christian System" in ' Religion: A Dialogue, and Other Essays (1910) as translated by Thomas Bailey Saunders, p. 105
Arthur Schopenhauer on Happiness
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Attributed to Arthur Schopenhauer:
“It is difficult to find happiness within oneself, but it is impossible to find it anywhere else.”
Arthur Schopenhauer on Knowledge
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“Talent hits a target no one else can hit; genius hits a target no one else can see.”
Das Talent gleicht dem Schützen, der ein Ziel trifft, welches die Uebrigen nicht erreichen können; das Genie dem, der eines trifft, bis zu welchem sie nicht ein Mal zu sehn vermögen... | Vol. II, Ch. III, para. 31 (On Genius), 1844 | As cited in The Little Book of Bathroom Philosophy: Daily Wisdom from the Greatest Thinkers (2004) by Gregory Bergman, p. 137 -
“Every man takes the limits of his own field of vision for the limits of the world.”
Psychological Observations -
“It is the courage to make a clean breast of it in the face of every question that distinguishes the philosopher . He must be like Sophocles ' Oedipus , who, seeking enlightenment concerning his terrible fate, pursues his indefatigable inquiry even though he divines that appalling horror awaits him in the answer. But most of us carry with us the Jocasta in our hearts, who begs Oedipus, for God's sa”
Letter to Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (November 1815) [ citation needed ] -
“Obit anus, abit onus.”
The old woman dies, the burden is lifted. Statement Schopenhauer wrote in Latin into his account book, after the death of a seamstress to whom he had made court-ordered payments of 15 thalers a quarter for over twenty years, after she had accused him of having injured her arm; as quoted in Modern Philosophy: From Descartes to Schopenhauer and Hartmann (1877) by Francis Bowen , p. 392. Schopenhauer
Arthur Schopenhauer on Life
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“Wealth is like sea-water; the more we drink, the thirstier we become.”
E. Payne, trans. (1974) Vol. 1, p. 347
Arthur Schopenhauer on Mind
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“The world is my representation.”
From The Total Library by Jorge Luis Borges, 1999
Arthur Schopenhauer on Virtue
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“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 -
“Compassion is the basis of morality.”
Boundless compassion for all living beings is the surest and most certain guarantee of pure moral conduct, and needs no casuistry. Whoever is filled with it will assuredly injure no one, do harm to no one, encroach on no man's rights; he will rather have regard for every one, forgive every one, help every one as far as he can, and all his actions will bear the stamp of justice and loving-kindness. -
“The New Testament … must be in some way traceable to an Indian source: its ethical system, its ascetic view of morality, its pessimism, and its Avatar, are all thoroughly Indian. It is its morality which places it in a position of such emphatic and essential antagonism to the Old Testament, so that the story of the Fall is the only possible point of connection between the two.”
quoted in The Circle of Memory_ An Autobiography - Subhash Kak -
“In an essay on ‘“The Christian System,” he argued that the visions of the Old and New Testament are so unalike that the latter “‘must be in some way traceable to an Indian source: its ethical system, its ascetic view of morality, its pessimism and its Avatar, are all thoroughly Indian.”
Suzanne L. Marchand - German Orientalism in the Age of Empire. Religion, Race, and Scholarship-Cambridge University Press (2009)
Things actually not said by Arthur Schopenhauer
A number of widely-shared lines are circulated as Arthur Schopenhauer but are in fact from someone else. Did Arthur Schopenhauer say these? No. Each entry below pairs the line with the person who actually wrote it.
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Did Arthur Schopenhauer say this? No.
“All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.”
Although widely circulated as Schopenhauer, this exact formulation has not been located in his collected works or correspondence. Schopenhauer made related observations about how new ideas are received, but the three-stage formula in this English phrasing appears to be a 20th-century summary rather than a translation. The actual author has not been confirmed.