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Happiness of any given life is to be measured, not by its joys and pleasures, but by the extent to which it has been free from suffering-from positive evil.
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
Suffering
Joys
Happiness
Measured
Free
Pleasures
Evil
Extent
Given
Positive
Life
Joy
Pleasure
More quotes by Arthur Schopenhauer
A man can be himself only so long as he is alone.
Arthur Schopenhauer
Thus also every keen pleasure is an error and an illusion, for no attained wish can give lasting satisfaction.
Arthur Schopenhauer
If we were not all so interested in ourselves, life would be so uninteresting that none of us would be able to endure it.
Arthur Schopenhauer
The fruits of Christianity were religious wars, butcheries, crusades, inquisitions, extermination of the natives of America, and the introduction of African slaves in their place.
Arthur Schopenhauer
To conceal a want of real ideas, many make for themselves an imposing apparatus of long compound words, intricate flourishes and phrases, new and unheard-of expressions, all of which together furnish an extremely difficult jargon that sounds very learned. Yet with all this they say-precisely nothing.
Arthur Schopenhauer
It often happens that we blurt out things that may in some kind of way be harmful to us, but we are silent about things that may make us look ridiculous because in this case effect follows very quickly on cause.
Arthur Schopenhauer
A man's delight in looking forward to and hoping for some particular satisfaction is a part of the pleasure flowing out of it, enjoyed in advance. But this is afterward deducted, for the more we look forward to anything the less we enjoy it when it comes.
Arthur Schopenhauer
You can do what you will, but in any given moment of your life you can will only one definite thing and absolutely nothing other than that one thing.
Arthur Schopenhauer
...a genuine work of art, can never be false, nor can it be discredited through the lapse of time, for it does not present an opinion but the thing itself.
Arthur Schopenhauer
There are, first of all, two kinds of authors: those who write for the subject's sake, and those who write for writing's sake. ... The truth is that when an author begins to write for the sake of covering paper, he is cheating the reader because he writes under the pretext that he has something to say.
Arthur Schopenhauer
Whatever torch we kindle, and whatever space it may illuminate, our horizon will always remain encircled by the depth of night.
Arthur Schopenhauer
There is no opinion, however absurd, which men will not readily embrace as soon as they can be brought to the conviction that it is generally adopted.
Arthur Schopenhauer
Wir tappen im Labyrinth unsers Lebenswandels und im Dunkel unserer Forschungen umher: helleAugenblicke erleuchten dabei wie Blitze unsernWeg. We grope about in the labyrinth of our life and in the obscurity of our investigations bright moments illuminate our path like flashes of lightning.
Arthur Schopenhauer
It is a wise thing to be polite consequently, it is a stupid thing to be rude. To make enemies by unnecessary and willful incivility, is just as insane a proceeding as to set your house on fire. For politeness is like a counter--an avowedly false coin, with which it is foolish to be stingy.
Arthur Schopenhauer
Thus, the task is not so much to see what no one yet has seen, but to think what nobody yet has thought about that which everybody sees.
Arthur Schopenhauer
Just as the largest library, badly arranged, is not so useful as a very moderate one that is well arranged, so the greatest amount of knowledge, if not elaborated by our own thoughts, is worth much less than a far smaller volume that has been abundantly and repeatedly thought over.
Arthur Schopenhauer
Pleasure is never as pleasant as we expected it to be and pain is always more painful. The pain in the world always outweighs the pleasure. If you don't believe it, compare the respective feelings of two animals, one of which is eating the other.
Arthur Schopenhauer
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.
Arthur Schopenhauer
Hatred is an affair of the heart contempt that of the head.
Arthur Schopenhauer
It is the courage to make a clean breast of it in the face of every question that makes the philosopher.
Arthur Schopenhauer
