The 90 best phrases (and reflections) of Arthur Schopenhauer
Arthur Schopenhauer knew how to place pessimism in the panorama of philosophy as a way of reflecting on life. Not to obscure it, but to give it a more realistic and critical sense in the face of society's expectations and how you are dragging us down. Instead, he seeks to motivate us to find our own creative and calming space in solitude.
- We recommend you read: "50 great phrases of Gandhi on peace, life and love"
Schopenhauer's best quotes and phrases
To learn more about the point of view of this philosopher, we bring a compilation with the best phrases of Arthur Schopenhauer.
1. It is difficult to find happiness within yourself, but it is impossible to find it elsewhere.
Although it is difficult, the answers are always within us.
2. Almost all of our sorrows arise from our relationships with other people.
Disappointment creates a deep hole in our hearts.
3. We lose three quarters of ourselves to be like the others.
A reflection on that need to be like someone else. Instead of being a better version of us.
4. We must acknowledge the fact that humanity cannot live without a certain dose of absurdity.
Not everyone is willing to hear the truth all the time.
5. Envy in men shows how miserable they feel, and their constant attention to what others are doing or not doing shows how bored they are.
The nature of what envy hides.
6. In music all feelings return to their pure state and the world is nothing but music come true.
Reflections on music and what it makes us feel.
7. Happiness consists in the frequent repetition of pleasure.
The insatiable search to feel good in everything we do.
8. The two enemies of human happiness are pain and boredom.
The states that most stop people from moving forward.
9. There is something in us that is wiser than our head.
A reminder that it is also good to listen to our instincts.
10. Daily relations are such that with most of our good acquaintances we would never exchange a single word if we heard what they say about us in our absence.
Not all cordial relationships have good feelings behind them.
11. If we called the graves and asked the dead if they would like to rise again, they would say no.
Would you like to live again?
12. Life is only death postponed.
That is why we must focus on living for as long as we have.
13. It is said that wickedness is expiated in that world; but stupidity is expiated in it.
We can also find a hell in this world.
14. All truth goes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently rejected. Third, it is accepted as self-evident.
The truth may take time, but it never fails.
15. Music is the melody whose text is the world.
Music has been made to unite us.
16. What is modesty but a hypocritical humility by which a man apologizes for having qualities and merits that others do not have!
Modesty as a role of society that tells us how we should behave.
17. Is this the world they say was created by a God? No, it must have been by a demon!
Regretting the course the world has taken.
18. Fate mixes the cards, and we play them.
We must act with what we have at hand.
19. The inclination of two people of the opposite sex is already the will to live of the new individual that they can and would like to engender, a will that is already agitated when their gazes meet.
The force that encourages us to look for someone with whom to share life.
20. For millions and millions of human beings, the real hell is earth.
That is why many seek a way to free themselves from this suffering.
21. All our evil comes from the fact that we cannot be alone.
If you are not comfortable with yourself, you will be uncomfortable with the rest of the others.
22. Each departure is an anticipation of death and each encounter an anticipation of resurrection.
All loss is an approximation to death.
23. Once in a while you learn something, but you forget the whole day.
Value each new knowledge you acquire.
24. The young person must, early on, be able to bear being alone; since he is a source of happiness and peace of mind.
On the importance of instilling in people self-love.
25. If a man wants to read good books, he must avoid bad ones; because life is short, and time and energy are limited.
But how will we know what is a bad book?
26. The person who writes for fools is always sure of a large audience.
A sure audience that you will always find.
27. Genius and madness have something in common: they both live in a different world than the one that exists for everyone else.
Perhaps for this reason, many geniuses are perceived as lonely people.
28. With certain people it is better to be betrayed than to distrust.
Not everyone around us is trustworthy.
29. Many times things are not given to the one who deserves them more, but to the one who knows how to ask for them insistently.
That is why you have to keep trying again and again.
30. To feel envy is human, to savor malicious joy is devilish.
It's normal to feel envy, but we cross the line when we enjoy the bad times that others have.
31. The Universe is a dream dreamed by a single dreamer, where all the characters in the dream also dream.
An interesting insight into the meaning we give to the universe.
32. A pessimist is an optimist in full possession of the facts.
Positivity can also turn toxic.
33. Preaching morality is easy, much easier than adjusting life to the morality that is preached.
Many tend to point fingers and deny their own actions.
34. To want is essentially to suffer, and as living is to want, all life is essentially pain. The higher the being, the more it suffers...
Suffering is a fundamental part of growth.
35. We rarely think about what we have; but always in what we lack.
It is more common to complain about what we do not have to thank for what we have.
36. A sense of humor is the only divine quality of man.
Taking things with humor helps us to solve problems in a better way.
37. The trouble with all religions is that instead of being able to confess their allegorical nature, they have to hide it.
Pointing out the hypocrisy of religions.
38. Loneliness is the heritage of all extraordinary souls.
Another phrase about the importance of appreciating solitude.
39. Freeing a person from error is giving, not taking away.
Warn a person of the danger they are running, even if they do not always want to listen.
40. The life of each individual, really, is a tragedy; however, if you go through it in detail, it has the character of a comedy.
We must learn to take life with humor.
41. Treat a work of art like a prince: let it speak to you first.
Good works will always have something to say to their viewers.
42. Against every wish satisfied there are ten that are not.
The ambition of people that not everyone is able to fill.
43. Rebellion is man's original virtue.
We live to create our own path.
44. The absurd is an element of its existence and the indispensable illusion; as indeed other aspects of life testify.
On the necessity of the absurd in life.
45. There is no rose without a thorn, but there are many thorns without a rose.
The value of people lies in what is inside.
46. Great men are like eagles, and build their nest in some lofty solitude.
They are able to take great flights without fear of falling.
47. To find the reason before the weak and the imbeciles, the solution is not to talk to them.
It is better to stay away from who brings problems.
48. The fewer reasons a man has to be proud of himself, the more often he is proud of belonging to a nation.
He identifies with patriotism when he loses his identity.
49. When someone rubs a cat's fur, it purrs. In the same way, when praising a man, his face reflects a sweet joy.
Compliment who deserves it.
50. Our task is not to see what no one has yet seen, but to think what no one has yet thought about what everyone sees.
About the role of philosophers.
51. I have never known any problem that an hour of reading did not alleviate.
Calm down is the first step to solving a problem.
52. Books are printed humanity.
A bit of each other's history.
53. Friends are usually considered sincere; enemies really are: for this reason it is excellent advice to take advantage of all their censorship to get to know ourselves a little better, it is something similar to when you use a bitter medicine.
That way criticism can act in your favor.
54. Restlessness is the hallmark of existence.
The need to search all the time for something better.
55. We must use common words to say unusual things.
The simpler an explanation, the better it will be understood.
56. Religions, like fireflies, need darkness to shine.
They can illuminate someone lost or they can blind him.
57. The life of man is nothing more than a struggle for existence, with the certainty of being defeated.
A battle to conquer what we want.
58. A man surely can do what he wants to do, but he cannot determine what he wants.
A reflection on what people are looking for.
59. A high degree of intellect tends to make a man not social.
An explanation for the withdrawal of geniuses.
60. Sexual passion is the cause of war and the end of peace.
A punitive vision of sexual passion.
61. Courtesy is to human nature what warmth is to wax.
Apparently something that must be controlled so as not to harm us.
62. The intellect is invisible to the man who has none.
And that is why they dislike it when a person advances his creativity.
63. The less intelligent a person is, the less mysterious existence is for him.
Closed-minded people don't tend to marvel at what's around them.
64. Loneliness is the lot of all excellent spirits.
Of those people who know how to be comfortable with themselves.
65. Each one has the maximum memory for what interests him and the minimum for what does not interest him.
A selective memory for what suits us.
66. The narrow-mindedness, the need and the folly of the majority of men would be completely inexplicable without intelligence.
Intelligence is not only mathematical, it is everything that we are capable of creating.
67. When it comes to friendship, love and marriage, the man behaves with absolute loyalty... but only with himself and, if anything, with his child.
There are those who believe that the fidelity of a couple does not exist in human nature.
68. What people commonly call fate is, as a rule, nothing more than their own stupid and foolish conduct.
People who get carried away by their mystical beliefs.
69. He who does not enjoy loneliness, he will not love freedom.
You cannot see the benefits of freedom if you are not at peace with yourself.
70. There are beings for whom it is inconceivable how they manage to walk on two legs, even if that does not mean much.
People who with his acts manage to question the true nature of the human.
71. With the exception of man, no being marvels at his own existence.
Our existence is a mystery by itself.
72. There is no favorable wind for those who do not know which port they are heading to.
If you don't have a future to pursue, you will forever wander the world.
73. Man is the only animal that causes pain to others for no other purpose than to want to do so.
He is the being that is most driven by greed.
74. Wealth is like salt water; the more you drink, the thirstier you get.
It becomes a bottomless pit that nothing can fill.
75. The social instinct of men is not based on love of society, but on the fear of loneliness.
It is the fear of what they will say, which stops us in many aspects.
76. Those who conceive of its existence simply as a mere effect of chance must surely fear losing it to death.
People who seek conformism instead of pursuing their dreams.
77. Affecting something of quality, boasting about it, is a confession of not possessing it.
It reminds us a bit of the saying 'tell me what you brag about and I'll tell you what you lack'.
78. Talent reaches a goal that no one else can. The genius reaches a goal that no one else can see.
Achievements are personal and everyone should be proud of theirs.
79. Compassion for animals is deeply associated with goodness of character, and I can safely say that someone who is cruel to animals cannot be a good man.
No good person hurts another living being.
80. Man has made the Earth a hell for animals.
A terrible truth that grows with time.
81. Happiness is only the absence of pain.
It is the way we deal with problems.
82. One cannot truly be oneself, except while one is alone; consequently, whoever does not love loneliness does not love freedom, because he is not free except when he is alone.
Loneliness should not be seen as a punishment but as an opportunity to get to know each other.
83. Vulgar men only think about how to pass the time. An intelligent man tries to take advantage of it.
Different ways of seeing time.
84. Buying books would be a good thing if we could also buy the time to read them.
It is useless to buy something if you are not going to use it.
85. Only change is eternal, perpetual, immortal.
Change will always exist.
86. Faith is like love, it does not allow itself to be forced.
Everything that is forced ends up breaking.
87. What teaches us the most about the value of things is loss.
It is when we no longer have something or we have let it go, that we long for what was there.
88. Each person takes the limits of his own field of vision as the limits of the world.
The mind can play with our motivation.
89. Anger does not allow us to know what we do and even less what we say.
When we act under the influence of anger, regret follows us.
90. The first forty years of life give us the text; the next thirty, the comment.
The evolutionary process of wisdom.
