Quote

Many books serve merely to show how many ways there are of being wrong, and how far astray you yourself would go if you followed their guidance. You should read only when your own thoughts dry up.

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
Would
Books
Astray
Wrong
Dry
Show
Followed
Read
Guidance
Shows
Serve
Book
Merely
Many
Thoughts
Way
Ways

More quotes by Arthur Schopenhauer

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Every miserable fool who has nothing at all of which he can be proud, adopts as a last resource pride in the nation to which he belongs he is ready and happy to defend all its faults and follies tooth and nail, thus reimbursing himself for his own inferiority.
Arthur Schopenhauer
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The old woman dies, the burden is lifted.
Arthur Schopenhauer
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Patriotism is the passion of fools and the most foolish of passions.
Arthur Schopenhauer
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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.
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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The tallest oak tree once was an acorn that any pig could have swallowed.
Arthur Schopenhauer
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Patriotism, when it wants to make itself felt in the domain of learning, is a dirty fellow who should be thrown out of doors.
Arthur Schopenhauer
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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.
Arthur Schopenhauer
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Motives are causes experienced from within.
Arthur Schopenhauer
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Philosophy ... is a science, and as such has no articles of faith accordingly, in it nothing can be assumed as existing except what is either positively given empirically, or demonstrated through indubitable conclusions.
Arthur Schopenhauer
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Reading is merely a surrogate for thinking for yourself it means letting someone else direct your thoughts.
Arthur Schopenhauer
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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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Wealth as well as sea water. The more we drink, the more thirsty. The so famous
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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Women remain children all their lives, for they always see only what is near at hand, cling to the present, take the appearance of a thing for reality, and prefer trifling matters to the most important.
Arthur Schopenhauer
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The reason domestic pets are so lovable and so helpful to us is because they enjoy, quietly and placidly, the present moment.
Arthur Schopenhauer
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A happy life is impos­si­ble the best that a man can attain is a heroic life.
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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All religions promise a reward beyond life, in eternity, for excellences of the will or heart, but none for excellences of the head or understanding.
Arthur Schopenhauer
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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.
Arthur Schopenhauer