958 Quotes by Arthur Schopenhauer

When a man has reached a condition in which he believes that a thing must happen because he does not wish it, and that what he wishes to happen never will be, this is really the state called desperation.

Life is full of troubles and vexations, that one must either rise above it by means of corrected thoughts, or leave it.

Wealth as well as sea water. The more we drink, the more thirsty. The so famous

Everybody's friend is nobody's.

Although as a rule the absurd culminates, and it seems impossible for the voice of the individual ever to penetrate through the chorus of foolers and fooled, still there is left to the genuine works of all times a quite peculiar, silent, slow, and powerful influence; and as if by a miracle, we see them rise at last out of the turmoil like a balloon that floats up out of the thick atmosphere of this globe into purer regions. Having once arrived there, it remains at rest, and no one can any longer draw it down again.

A man can do what he wants, but not want what he wants.

Every generation, no matter how paltry its character, thinks itself much wiser than the one immediately preceding it, let alone those that are more remote.

This is the case with many learned persons; they have read themselves stupid.

You must treat a work of art like a great man: stand before it and wait patiently till it deigns to speak.