958 Quotes by Arthur Schopenhauer

The conviction that the world and man is something that had better not have been, is of a kind to fill us with indulgence towards one another.

Exaggeration of every kind is as essential to journalism as it is to dramatic art, for the object of journalism is to make events go as far as possible.

Gaiety alone, as it were, is the hard cash of happiness; everything else is just a promissory note.

Genius is an intellect that has become unfaithful to its destiny.

Friends and acquaintances are the surest passport to fortune.

Men are the devils of the earth, and the animals are its tormented souls.

If a man sets out to hate all the miserable creatures he meets, he will not have much energy left for anything else; whereas he can despise them, one and all, with the greatest ease.

Mensch kann tun was er will; er kann aber nicht wollen was er will. (One can choose what to do, but not what to want.)

If the lives of men were relieved of all need, hardship and adversity; if everything they took in hand were successful, they would be so swollen with arrogance that, though they might not burst, they would present the spectacle of unbridled folly-nay, they would go mad. And I may say, further, that a certain amount of care or pain or trouble is necessary for every man at all times. A ship without ballast is unstable and will not go straight.