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We can do what we wish, but we can only wish what we must.

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
Wish
Must

More quotes by Arthur Schopenhauer

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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
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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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I owe what is best in my own development to the impression made by Kant's works, the sacred writings of the Hindus, and Plato.
Arthur Schopenhauer
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There is no absurdity so palpable but that it may be firmly planted in the human head if you only begin to inculcate it before the age of five, by constantly repeating it with an air of great solemnity.
Arthur Schopenhauer
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Newspapers are the second hand of history. This hand, however, is usually not only of inferior metal to the other hands, it also seldom works properly.
Arthur Schopenhauer
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Animals hear about death for the first time when they die.
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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As the biggest library if it is in disorder is not as useful as a small but well-arranged one, so you may accumulate a vast amount of knowledge but it will be of far less value than a much smaller amount if you have not thought it over for yourself.
Arthur Schopenhauer
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The safest way of not being very miserable is not to expect to be very happy.
Arthur Schopenhauer
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Buying books would be a good thing if one could also buy the time to read them in: but as a rule the purchase of books is mistaken for the appropriation of their contents.
Arthur Schopenhauer
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For our improvement we need a mirror.
Arthur Schopenhauer
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Rudeness is better than any argument it totally eclipses intellect.
Arthur Schopenhauer
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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.
Arthur Schopenhauer
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Nature shows that with the growth of intelligence comes increased capacity for pain, and it is only with the highest degree of intelligence that suffering reaches its supreme point.
Arthur Schopenhauer
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the brut first knows death when it dies, but man draws consciously nearer to it every hour that he lives and this makes his life at times a questionable good even to him who has not recognised this character of constant anaihilation in the whole of life.
Arthur Schopenhauer
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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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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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Money alone is absolutely good, because it is not only a concrete satisfaction of one need in particular it is an abstract satisfaction of all.
Arthur Schopenhauer
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Honour is external conscience, and conscience is inward honour.
Arthur Schopenhauer
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The heavy armor becomes the light dress of childhood the pain is brief, the joy unending.
Arthur Schopenhauer