home  Contact  Submit   Archive   ©  

"  

It doesn’t suprise me that people are bored when they find themselves alone;
they cannot laugh when they are alone; it even seems foolish to them.
Is laughter, then, only a signal for others and a mere sign, like a word?
Lack of imagination and of general liveliness of the mind, is what prevents them from laughing when they are by themselves.
Lower animals neither laugh alone nor in company.

Myson, the misanthrope, while laughing to himself, was once surprised by one of those men. He was then asked why he was laughing, since he was alone.
‘That is the very reason I am laughing’ was the reply.

  "
Arthur Schopenhauer, Parerga and Paralipomena
"   No man can be in perfect accord with any one but himself—
not even with a friend or the partner of his life;
differences of individuality and temperament are always bringing in some degree of discord, though it may be a very slight one.
That genuine, profound peace of mind, that perfect tranquillity of soul, which, next to health, is the highest blessing the earth can give,
is to be attained only in solitude, and, as a permanent mood, only in complete retirement;
and then, if there is anything great and rich in the man’s own self,
his way of life is the happiest that may be found in this wretched world.   "
Arthur Schopenhauer, Counsels And Maxims
"   In all we do, almost the first thing we think about is, what will people say; and nearly half the troubles and bothers of life may be traced to our anxiety on this score;
it is the anxiety which is at the bottom of all that feeling of self-importance, which is so often mortified because it is so very morbidly sensitive.
It is solicitude about what others will say that underlies all our vanity and pretension, yes, and all our show and swagger too.   "
Arthur Schopenhauer, The Wisdom Of Life
"   The truth is that the value we set upon the opinion of others, and our constant endeavour in respect of it,
are each quite out of proportion to any result we may reasonably hope to attain;
so that this attention to other people’s attitude may be regarded as a kind of universal mania which everyone inherits.   "
Arthur Schopenhauer, The Wisdom Of Life
"   In opposition to the mentioned form of the Kantian principle:
When you come into contact with a man, no matter whom, do not attempt an objective appreciation of him according to his worth and dignity. Do not consider his bad will, or his narrow understanding and perverse ideas; as the former may easily lead you to hate and the latter to despise him; 
but fix your attention only upon his sufferings, his needs, his anxieties, his pains.
Then you will always feel your kinship with him; you will sympathise with him; and instead of hatred or contempt you will experience the
commiseration that alone is the peace to which the Gospel calls us. The way to keep down hatred and contempt is certainly not to look for a man’s alleged “dignity,” but, on the contrary, to regard him as
an object of pity.   "
Arthur Schopenhauer, On Human Nature
"   The poet presents the imagination with images from life and human characters and situations, sets them all in motion and leaves it to the beholder to let these images take his thoughts as far as his mental powers will permit.   "
Arthur Schopenhauer, “On Philosophy and the Intellect”, Parerga and Paralipomena (via philosophybits)

(via philosophybits)

"   A lie always has its origin in the desire to extend the dominion of one’s own will over other individuals, and to deny their will in order the better to affirm one’s own. Consequently a lie is in its very nature the product of injustice, malevolence and villainy. That is why truth, sincerity, candour and rectitude are at once recognised and valued as praiseworthy and noble qualities; because we presume that the man who exhibits them entertains no sentiments of injustice or malice, and therefore stands in no need of concealing such sentiments. He who is open cherishes nothing that is bad.   "
Arthur Schopenhauer, On Human Nature
"   A genius is a man whose theoretical side enormously outweighs his practical. Even though he cannot grasp eternal relations, he can see a little deeper into the things of this world; attamen est quodam prodire tenus.   "
Arthur SchopenhauerReligion: A Dialogue, Etc.
"   It looks as if the Blessed Lord had created the world for the benefit of the devil! it would have been so much better not to have made it at all.   "
Arthur SchopenhauerThe Christian System
"   When, in some dreadful and ghastly dream, we reach the moment of greatest horror, it awakes us; thereby banishing all the hideous shapes that were born of the night. And life is a dream: when the moment of greatest horror compels us to break it off, the same thing happens.   "
Arthur Schopenhauer, On Suicide