Arthur Schopenhauer (February 22, 1788 – September 21, 1860) was a German philosopher best known for his 1818 work The World as Will and Representation. Often called the philosopher of pessimism, he developed a metaphysical system centered on the blind, striving “Will” as the underlying force of reality. His writings explore suffering, desire, art, compassion, and the human condition, drawing influences from Kant, Plato, and Eastern philosophy. Though largely ignored during his early career, Schopenhauer’s ideas later profoundly influenced thinkers such as Nietzsche, Freud, Einstein, and Wagner.
Friedrich Nietzsche, who was deeply shaped by Schopenhauer’s philosophy, wrote: “Schopenhauer’s thought was the first to strike me with its full force; it was like a thunderbolt.”
Below, we list some words of wisdom from Schopenhauer, drawn from his major works including The World as Will and Representation, Parerga and Paralipomena, and Counsels and Maxims.
“Talent hits a target no one else can hit. Genius hits a target no one else can see.”
“Compassion is the basis of morality.”
“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.”
“Mostly it is loss which teaches us about the worth of things.”
“All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.”
“Life swings like a pendulum backward and forward between pain and boredom.”
“The greatest of follies is to sacrifice health for any other kind of happiness.”
“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.”
“It is difficult to find happiness within oneself, but it is impossible to find it anywhere else.”
“Boundless compassion for all living beings is the surest and most certain guarantee of pure moral conduct.”
“Life is never beautiful, but only the pictures of life are so in the transfiguring mirror of art or poetry.”
“We seldom think of what we have but always of what we lack.”
“Every parting gives a foretaste of death, every reunion a hint of the resurrection.”
“The two foes of human happiness are pain and boredom.”
“Human life must be some kind of mistake.”
“Reading is merely a surrogate for thinking for yourself; it means letting someone else direct your thoughts.”
“To overcome difficulties is to experience the full delight of existence.”
“The safest way of not being very miserable is not to expect to be very happy.”
“A sense of humor is the only divine quality of man.”
“Hatred is a thing of the heart, contempt a thing of the head.”
“What people commonly call fate is mostly their own stupidity.”
“After your death you will be what you were before your birth.”
“In early youth, as we contemplate our coming life, we are like children in a theater before the curtain is raised, sitting there in high spirits and eagerly waiting for the play to begin.”
“Change alone is eternal, perpetual, immortal.”
“The fundament upon which all our knowledge and learning rests is the inexplicable.”
“Do not shorten the morning by getting up late, or waste it in unworthy occupations or in talk; look upon it as the quintessence of life, as to a certain extent sacred.”
“Truth that is naked is the most beautiful, and the simpler its expression the deeper is the impression it makes.”
“Life is short and truth works far and lives long: let us speak the truth.”
“The world is my representation.”
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