Quote

Reading is merely a surrogate for thinking for yourself it means letting someone else direct your thoughts.

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
Thinking
Merely
Direct
Thoughts
Reading
Means
Else
Surrogate
Someone
Surrogates
Mean
Letting

More quotes by Arthur Schopenhauer

Image
If you feel irritated by the absurd remarks of two people whose conversation you happen to overhear, you should imagine that you are listening to a dialogue of two fools in a comedy.
Arthur Schopenhauer
Image
The first rule for a good style is to have something to say in fact, this in itself is almost enough.
Arthur Schopenhauer
Image
There are three stages in the revelation of truth. The first is to be ridiculed, the second is to be resisted and the third is to be considered self-evident.
Arthur Schopenhauer
Image
Hatred is an affair of the heart contempt that of the head.
Arthur Schopenhauer
Image
First the truth is ridiculed. Then it meets outrage. Then it is said to have been obvious all along.
Arthur Schopenhauer
Image
Animals learn death first at the moment of death...man approaches death with the knowledge it is closer every hour, and this creates a feeling of uncertainty over his life, even for him who forgets in the business of life that annihilation is awaiting him. It is for this reason chiefly that we have philosophy and religion.
Arthur Schopenhauer
Image
Gaiety alone, as it were, is the hard cash of happiness everything else is just a promissory note.
Arthur Schopenhauer
Image
Will minus intellect constitutes vulgarity.
Arthur Schopenhauer
Image
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
Image
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.
Arthur Schopenhauer
Image
Life is full of troubles and vexations, that one must either rise above it by means of corrected thoughts, or leave it.
Arthur Schopenhauer
Image
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
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
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
Image
Genius is an intellect that has become unfaithful to its destiny.
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
We must set limits to our wishes, curb our desires, moderate our anger, always remembering that an individual can attain only an infinitesimal share in anything that is worth having and that on the other hand, everyone must incur many of the ills of life
Arthur Schopenhauer
Image
One man is more concerned with the impression he makes on the rest of mankind, another with the impression the rest of mankind makes on him.
Arthur Schopenhauer
Image
I am often surprised by the cleverness, and now and again by the stupidity, of my dog and I have similar experiences with mankind.
Arthur Schopenhauer
Image
Nothing shocks our moral feelings so deeply as cruelty does. We can forgive every other crime, but not cruelty. The reason for this is that it is the very opposite of compassion.
Arthur Schopenhauer