Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860) was a German philosopher known for his penetrating reflections on human will, suffering, and the pursuit of happiness. His philosophy explores the contradictions within our desires and the importance of our inner life. The following quotes are drawn from The Wisdom of Life and Counsels and Maxims.
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“What a man is contributes much more to his happiness than what he has.”
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“The highest, most varied and lasting pleasures are those of the mind.”
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“A healthy beggar is happier than an ailing king.”
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“No one can get beyond his own individuality.”
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“An intellectual man in complete solitude has excellent entertainment in his own thoughts and fancies.”
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“A good, temperate, gentle character can be happy in needy circumstances, whilst a covetous, envious and malicious man, even if he be the richest in the world, goes miserable.”
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“Men are a thousand times more intent on becoming rich than on acquiring culture.”
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“In the blessings as well as in the ills of life, less depends upon what befalls us than upon the way in which it is met.”
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“To estimate a man’s condition in regard to happiness, it is necessary to ask, not what things please him, but what things trouble him.”
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“To be irritated by trifles, a man must be well off; for in misfortunes trifles are unfelt.”
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“We should not require a great many things in order to be happy.”
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“We often toil for things which are no longer suited to us when we attain them.”
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“Instead of finding, as we expected, pleasure, happiness, joy, we get experience, insight, knowledge – a real and permanent blessing, instead of a fleeting and illusory one.”
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“There is a sense in which we are all alchemists.”
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“The present alone is true and actual; it is the only time which possesses full reality, and our existence lies in it exclusively.”
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“It is the height of folly to refuse the present hour of happiness, or wantonly to spoil it by vexation at bygones or uneasiness about what is to come.”
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“Today comes only once, and never returns.”
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“Every day is an integral, and therefore irreplaceable portion of life.”
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“We live through our days of happiness without noticing them; it is only when evil comes upon us that we wish them back.”
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“A thousand gay and pleasant hours are wasted in ill-humor; we let them slip by unenjoyed, and sigh for them in vain when the sky is overcast.”
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“A little self-control at the right moment may prevent much subsequent compulsion at the hands of others.”
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“Nothing will protect us from external compulsion so much as the control of ourselves.”
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“There is a direct pleasure in seeing work grow under one’s hands day by day, until at last it is finished.”
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“While, on the stage of the world, most men play their little part and then pass away, the genius lives a double life, at once an actor and a spectator.”
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“To overcome difficulties is to experience the full delight of existence.”
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“To affect a quality, and to plume yourself upon it, is just to confess that you have not got it.”
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“It is more advisable to show your intelligence by saying nothing than by speaking out; for silence is a matter of prudence, whilst speech has something in it of vanity.”
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“Prudence exacts that a wide gulf should be fixed between what we think and what we say.”
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“Money is never spent to so much advantage as when you have been cheated out of it; for at one stroke you have purchased prudence.”
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“To see how short life is, a man must have grown old, that is to say, he must have lived long.”
Author: Vasil Stoyanov