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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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A poet or philosopher should have no fault to find with his age if it only permits him to do his work undisturbed in his own corner nor with his fate if the corner granted him allows of his following his vocation without having to think about other people.
Arthur Schopenhauer
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A man becomes a philosopher by reason of a certain perplexity, from which he seeks to free himself.
Arthur Schopenhauer
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A man's face as a rule says more, and more interesting things, than his mouth, for it is a compendium of everything his mouth will ever say, in that it is the monogram of all this man's thoughts and aspirations.
Arthur Schopenhauer
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Empirical sciences prosecuted purely for their own sake, and without philosophic tendency are like a face without eyes.
Arthur Schopenhauer
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If God made the world, I would not be that God, for the misery of the world would break my heart.
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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A man must have grown old and lived long in order to see how short life is.
Arthur Schopenhauer
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Das Ganze der Erfahrung gleicht einer Geheimschrift und die Philosophie der Entzifferung derselben. The whole of experience is like a cryptograph, and philosophy is like the deciphering of it.
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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There is no more mistaken path to happiness than worldliness, revelry, high life.
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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Time is that in which all things pass away.
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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Every state of welfare, every feeling of satisfaction, is negative in its character that is to say, it consists in freedom from pain, which is the positive element of existence.
Arthur Schopenhauer
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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
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I know of no more beautiful prayer than that which the Hindus of old used in closing: May all that have life be delivered from suffering.
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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Means at our disposal should be regarded as a bulwark against the many evils and misfortunes that can occur. We should not regard such wealth as a permission or even an obligation to procure for ourselves the pleasures of the world.
Arthur Schopenhauer
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He who does not enjoy solitude will not love freedom.
Arthur Schopenhauer
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The truth can wait, for it lives a long life.
Arthur Schopenhauer