Quote

If a man wants to read good books, he must make a point of avoiding bad ones for life is short, and time and energy limited.

Arthur Schopenhauer

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Arthur Schopenhauer
Age: 72 †
Born: 1788
Born: February 22
Died: 1860
Died: September 21
Musicologist
Philosopher
Translator
University Teacher
Writer
Danzig
Energy
Avoiding
Book
Limited
Must
Short
Make
Ones
Good
Wants
Men
Books
Time
Point
Life
Read

More quotes by Arthur Schopenhauer

Image
Ist es an und fu? r sich absurd, das Nichtsein fu? r einUbel zu ? halten da jedes Ubel wie jedes Gut das Dasein zur Voraussetzung hat, ja sogar das Bewusstsein. It is in and by itself absurd to regard non-existence as an evil for every evil, like every good, presupposes existence, indeed even consciousness.
Arthur Schopenhauer
Image
There is no vice of which a man can be guilty, no meanness, no shabbiness, no unkindness, which excites so much indignation among his contemporaries, friends and neighbours, as his success. This is the one unpardonable crime, which reason cannot defend, nor humility mitigate.
Arthur Schopenhauer
Image
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
Image
Thus also every keen pleasure is an error and an illusion, for no attained wish can give lasting satisfaction.
Arthur Schopenhauer
Image
The business of the novelist is not to relate great events, but to make small ones interesting.
Arthur Schopenhauer
Image
The discovery of truth is prevented more effectively, not by the false appearance things present and which mislead into error, not directly by weakness of the reasoning powers, but by preconceived opinion, by prejudice.
Arthur Schopenhauer
Image
If children were brought into the world by an act of pure reason alone, would the human race continue to exist? Would not a man rather have so much sympathy with the coming generation as to spare it the burden of existence, or at any rate not take it upon himself to impose that burden upon it in cold blood?
Arthur Schopenhauer
Image
Motives are causes experienced from within.
Arthur Schopenhauer
Image
Every state of welfare, every feeling of satisfaction, is negative in its character that is to say, it consists in freedom from pain, which is the positive element of existence.
Arthur Schopenhauer
Image
Our civilized world is nothing but a great masquerade. You encounter knights, parsons, soldiers, doctors, lawyers, priests, philosophers and a thousand more: but they are not what they appear - they are merely masks... Usually, as I say, there is nothing but industrialists, businessmen and speculators concealed behind all these masks.
Arthur Schopenhauer
Image
Pride works _from within_ it is the direct appreciation of oneself. Vanity is the desire to arrive at this appreciation indirectly, from without.
Arthur Schopenhauer
Image
Journalists are like dogs, when ever anything moves they begin to bark.
Arthur Schopenhauer
Image
A word too much always defeats its purpose.
Arthur Schopenhauer
Image
A man finds himself, to his great astonishment, suddenly existing, after thousands and thousands of years of non-existence: he lives for a little while and then, again, comes an equally long period when he must exist no more. The heart rebels against this, and feels that it cannot be true.
Arthur Schopenhauer
Image
Freedom of the press is to the machinery of the state what the safety valve is to the steam engine.
Arthur Schopenhauer
Image
In early youth, as we contemplate our coming life, we are like children in a theatre before the curtain is raised, sitting there in high spirits and eagerly waiting for the play to begin.
Arthur Schopenhauer
Image
The tallest oak tree once was an acorn that any pig could have swallowed.
Arthur Schopenhauer
Image
Means at our disposal should be regarded as a bulwark against the many evils and misfortunes that can occur. We should not regard such wealth as a permission or even an obligation to procure for ourselves the pleasures of the world.
Arthur Schopenhauer
Image
Money is human happiness in the abstract.
Arthur Schopenhauer
Image
I've never known any trouble than an hour's reading didn't assuage.
Arthur Schopenhauer