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Life is neither to be wept over nor to be laughed at but to be understood.

Arthur Schopenhauer

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Arthur Schopenhauer
Age: 72 †
Born: 1788
Born: February 22
Died: 1860
Died: September 21
Musicologist
Philosopher
Translator
University Teacher
Writer
Danzig
Wept
Laughed
Neither
Understood
Life

More quotes by Arthur Schopenhauer

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Just as a stream flows smoothly on as long as it encounters no obstruction, so the nature of man and animal is such that we never really notice or become conscious of what is agreeable to our will if we are to notice something, our will has to have been thwarted, has to have experienced a shock of some kind.
Arthur Schopenhauer
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National character is only another name for the particular form which the littleness, perversity and baseness of mankind take in every country. Every nation mocks at other nations, and all are right.
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The scenes and events of long ago, and the persons who took part in them, wear a charming aspect to the eye of memory, which sees only the outlines and takes no note of disagreeable details. The present enjoys no such advantage, and so it always seems defective.
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You must treat a work of art like a great man: stand before it and wait patiently till it deigns to speak.
Arthur Schopenhauer
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It is difficult to keep quiet if you have nothing to do
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Life without pain has no meaning.
Arthur Schopenhauer
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If God made this world, then i would not want to be the God. It is full of misery and distress that it breaks my heart.
Arthur Schopenhauer
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History is the long, difficult and confused dream of Mankind.
Arthur Schopenhauer
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Our life is a loan received from death with sleep as the daily interest on this loan.
Arthur Schopenhauer
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A man of genius can hardly be sociable, for what dialogues could indeed be so intelligent and entertaining as his own monologues?
Arthur Schopenhauer
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We deceive and flatter no one by such delicate artificies as we do our own selves.
Arthur Schopenhauer
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Memory works like the collection glass in the Camera obscura: it gathers everything together and therewith produces a far more beautiful picture than was present originally.
Arthur Schopenhauer
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How is it possible that suffering that is neither my own nor of my concern should immediately affect me as though it were my own, and with such force that is moves me to action?
Arthur Schopenhauer
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At the age of five years to enter a spinning-cotton or other factory, and from that time forth to sit there daily, first ten, then twelve, and ultimately fourteen hours, performing the same mechanical labour, is to purchase dearly the satisfaction of drawing breath. But this is the fate of millions, and that of millions more is analogous to it.
Arthur Schopenhauer
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The business of the novelist is not to relate great events, but to make small ones interesting.
Arthur Schopenhauer
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The principle of contradiction establishes merely the agreement of concepts, but does not itself produce concepts.
Arthur Schopenhauer
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Men best show their character in trifles, where they are not on their guard. It is in the simplest habits, that we often see the boundless egotism which pays no regard to the feelings of others and denies nothing to itself.
Arthur Schopenhauer
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Not to go to the theater is like making one's toilet without a mirror.
Arthur Schopenhauer
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There is no more mistaken path to happiness than worldliness, revelry, high life.
Arthur Schopenhauer
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What a man is: that is to say, personality, in the widest sense of the word under which are included health, strength, beauty, temperament, moral character, intelligence, and education.
Arthur Schopenhauer