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That human life must be some kind of mistake is sufficiently proved by the simple observation that man is a compound of needs which are hard to satisfy that their satisfaction achieves nothing but a painless condition in which he is only given over to boredom . . .

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
Men
Given
Boredom
Painless
Life
Human
Observation
Achieves
Humans
Condition
Compound
Nothing
Satisfaction
Compounds
Hard
Conditions
Pessimistic
Must
Achieve
Sufficiently
Needs
Mistake
Satisfy
Kind
Simple
Proved

More quotes by Arthur Schopenhauer

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Gaiety alone, as it were, is the hard cash of happiness everything else is just a promissory note.
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alent is like the marksman who hits a target which others cannot reach genius is like the marksman who hits a target, as far as which others cannot even see.
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I have described religion as the metaphysics of the people.
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There is no more mistaken path to happiness than worldliness, revelry, high life.
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Every time a man is begotten and born, the clock of human life is wound up anew to repeat once more its same old tune that has already been played innumerable times, movement by movement and measure by measure, with insignificant variations.
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Something of great importance now past is inferior to something of little importance now present, in that the latter is a reality, and related to the former as something to nothing.
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To call the world God is not to explain it it is only to enrich our language with a superfluous synonym.
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A man can do what he wants, but not want what he wants.
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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.
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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.
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The business of the novelist is not to relate great events, but to make small ones interesting.
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Were an Asiatic to ask me for a definition of Europe, I should be forced to answer him: It is that part of the world which is haunted by the incredible delusion that man was created out of nothing, and that his present birth is his first entrance into life.
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Whatever torch we kindle, and whatever space it may illuminate, our horizon will always remain encircled by the depth of night.
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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.
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It is only a man's own fundamental thoughts that have truth and life in them. For it is these that he really and completely understands. To read the thoughts of others is like taking the remains of someone else's meal, like putting on the discarded clothes of a stranger.
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The more unintelligent a man is, the less mysterious existence seems to him.
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Do not shorten the morning by getting up late look upon it as the quintessence of life, as to a certain extent sacred.
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Patriotism is the passion of fools and the most foolish of passions.
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A word too much always defeats its purpose.
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Honor means that a man is not exceptional fame, that he is. Fame is something which must be won honor, only something which must not be lost.
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