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Our first ideas of life are generally taken from fiction rather than fact.

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
Facts
Ideas
Firsts
First
Generally
Life
Fiction
Taken
Rather
Fact

More quotes by Arthur Schopenhauer

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It is not what things are objectively and in themselves, but what they are for us, in our way of looking at them, that makes us happy or the reverse.
Arthur Schopenhauer
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The fourfold root of the principle of sufficent reason is Anything perceived has a cause. All conclusions have premises. All effects have causes. All actions have motives.
Arthur Schopenhauer
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If there is anything in the world that can really be called a man's property, it is surely that which is the result of his mental activity.
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... that when you're buying books, you're optimistically thinking you're buying the time to read them. (Paraphrase of Schopenhauer)
Arthur Schopenhauer
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The weakness of their reasoning faculty also explains why women show more sympathy for the unfortunate than men... and why, on the contrary, they are inferior to men as regards justice, and less honourable and conscientious.
Arthur Schopenhauer
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Human existence is an error...it is bad today and every day it gets worse, until the worst happens.
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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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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To become indignant at [people's] conduct is as foolish as to be angry with a stone because it rolls into your path. And with many people the wisest thing you can do, is to resolve to make use of those whom you cannot alter.
Arthur Schopenhauer
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Newspapers are the second hand of history. This hand, however, is usually not only of inferior metal to the other hands, it also seldom works properly.
Arthur Schopenhauer
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Great men are like eagles, and build their nest on some lofty solitude.
Arthur Schopenhauer
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Buying books would be a good thing if one could also buy the time to read them in: but as a rule the purchase of books is mistaken for the appropriation of their contents.
Arthur Schopenhauer
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I believe a person of any fine feeling scarcely ever sees a new face without a sensation akin to a shock, for the reason that it presents a new and surprising combination of unedifying elements.
Arthur Schopenhauer
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It is with trifles, and when he is off guard, that a man best reveals his character.
Arthur Schopenhauer
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Will without intellect is the most vulgar and common thing in the world, possessed by every blockhead, who, in the gratification of his passions, shows the stuff of which he is made.
Arthur Schopenhauer
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If God made the world, I would not be that God, for the misery of the world would break my heart.
Arthur Schopenhauer
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Patriotism is the passion of fools and the most foolish of passions.
Arthur Schopenhauer
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That I could clamber to the frozen moon. And draw the ladder after me.
Arthur Schopenhauer
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Truth is most beautiful undraped.
Arthur Schopenhauer
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Life without pain has no meaning.
Arthur Schopenhauer