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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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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
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I have described religion as the metaphysics of the people.
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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Genius and madness have something in common: both live in a world that is different from that which exists for everyone else.
Arthur Schopenhauer
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A man of talent will strive for money and reputation but the spring that moves genius to the production of its works is not as easy to name
Arthur Schopenhauer
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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
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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
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Opinion is like a pendulum and obeys the same law. If it goes past the centre of gravity on one side, it must go a like distance on the other and it is only after a certain time that it finds the true point at which it can remain at rest.
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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Religion is the metaphysics of the masses.
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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The nobler and more perfect a thing is, the later and slower it is in arriving at maturity. A man reaches the maturity of his reasoning powers and mental faculties hardly before the age of twenty-eight a woman at eighteen.
Arthur Schopenhauer
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Life is a constant process of dying.
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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Every genius is a great child he gazes out at the world as something strange, a spectacle, and therefore with purely objective interest
Arthur Schopenhauer
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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
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Freedom of the press is to the machinery of the state what the safety valve is to the steam engine.
Arthur Schopenhauer
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Truth that is naked is the most beautiful, and the simpler its expression the deeper is the impression it makes.
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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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