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Parerga and Paralipomena QUOTES

Parerga and Paralipomena QUOTES

1 " 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 , Parerga and Paralipomena

2 " The intellectual attainments of a man who thinks for himself resemble a fine painting, where the light and shade are correct, the tone sustained, the colour perfectly harmonised; it is true to life. On the other hand, the intellectual attainments of the mere man of learning are like a large palette, full of all sorts of colours, which at most are systematically arranged, but devoid of harmony, connection and meaning. "

― Arthur Schopenhauer , Parerga and Paralipomena

3 " Mostly it is loss which teaches us about the worth of things. "

― Arthur Schopenhauer , Parerga and Paralipomena

4 " There is nothing to be got in the world anywhere; privation and pain pervade it, and boredom lies in wait at every corner for those who have escaped them. Moreover, wickedness usually reigns, and folly does all the talking. Fate is cruel, and human beings are pathetic. "

― Arthur Schopenhauer , Parerga and Paralipomena

5 " Every society requires mutual accommodation and mutually agreeable temper; hence the larger it is, the duller. "

― Arthur Schopenhauer , Parerga and Paralipomena

6 " Very often inertia, selfishness, and vanity play the greatest role in our trust in others; inertia when we prefer to trust somebody else, in order not to investigate, be vigilant, or act ourselves; selfishness when the desire to speak about our own affairs tempts us to confide in someone else; vanity when it concers something that we are proud of. "

― Arthur Schopenhauer , Parerga and Paralipomena

7 " Spirit? Who is that fellow? And where do you know him from? Is he perhaps not merely an arbitrary and convenient hypostasis that you have not even defined, let alone deduced or proved? Do you think you have an audience of old women in front of you? "

― Arthur Schopenhauer , Parerga and Paralipomena

8 " the origin of wickedness is the cliff upon which theism, just as much as pantheism, is wrecked; for both imply optimism. However, evil and sin, both in their terrible magnitude, cannot be disavowed; indeed, because of the promised punishments for the latter, the former is only further increased. Whence all this, in a world that is either itself a God or the well-intentioned work of a God? "

― Arthur Schopenhauer , Parerga and Paralipomena

9 " God, who in the beginning was the creator, appears in the end as revenger and rewarder. Deference to such a God admittedly can produce virtuous actions; however, because fear of punishment or hope for reward are their motive, these actions will not be purely moral; on the contrary, the inner essence of such virtue will amount to prudent and carefully calculating egoism. "

― Arthur Schopenhauer , Parerga and Paralipomena

10 " Health so far outweighs all external goods that a healthy beggars is truly more fortunate than a king in poor health. "

― Arthur Schopenhauer , Parerga and Paralipomena

11 " In general, nine-tenths of our happiness depends on our health alone. "

― Arthur Schopenhauer , Parerga and Paralipomena

12 " The ingenious person will above all strive for freedom from pain and annoyance, for tranquility and leisure, and consequently seek a quiet, modest life, as undisturbed as possible, and accordingly, after some acquaintance with so-called human beings, choose seclusion and, if in possession of a great mind, even solitude. For the more somebody has in himself, the less he needs from the outside and the less others can be to him. Therefore, intellectual distinction leads to unsociability. "

― Arthur Schopenhauer , Parerga and Paralipomena

13 " So if you have to live amongst men, you must allow everyone the right to exist in accordance with the character he has, whatever it turns out to be: and all you should strive to do is to make use of this character in such a way as its kind and nature permit, rather than to hope for any alteration in it, or to condemn it off-hand for what it is. This is the true sense of the maxim--Live and let live. That, however, is a task which is difficult in proportion as it is right; and he is a happy man who can once for all avoid having to do with a great many of his fellow creatures. "

― Arthur Schopenhauer , Parerga and Paralipomena

14 " Common people are merely intent on spending time - whoever has some talent, on making use of it. "

― Arthur Schopenhauer , Parerga and Paralipomena

15 " Genius lives only one storey above madness "

― Arthur Schopenhauer , Parerga and Paralipomena

16 " Sociability belongs to the most dangerous, even destructive inclinations, since it brings us into contact with beings the great majority of whom are morally bad and intellectually dull or perverted. "

― Arthur Schopenhauer , Parerga and Paralipomena

17 " The cheapest kind of pride, on the other hand, is national pride. For it betrays in those affected by it the lack of individual qualities of which they could be proud, since they would otherwise not grasp at something that they share with so many millions. Rather those who possess significant personal qualities will recognize most clearly the faults of their own nation, since they constantly have them in front of them. "

― Arthur Schopenhauer , Parerga and Paralipomena

18 " A number of porcupines huddled together for warmth on a cold day in winter; but, as they began to prick one another with their quills, they were obliged to disperse. However the cold drove them together again, when just the same thing happened. At last, after many turns of huddling and dispersing, they discovered that they would be best off by remaining at a little distance from one another. In the same way the need of society drives the human porcupines together, only to be mutually repelled by the many prickly and disagreeable qualities of their nature. The moderate distance which they at last discover to be the only tolerable condition of intercourse, is the code of politeness and fine manners; and those who transgress it are roughly told—in the English phrase—to keep their distance. By this arrangement the mutual need of warmth is only very moderately satisfied; but then people do not get pricked. A man who has some heat in himself prefers to remain outside, where he will neither prick other people nor get pricked himself. "

― Arthur Schopenhauer , Parerga and Paralipomena

19 " People's envy shows how unhappy they feel; their constant attention to the doings of others how bored they are. "

― Arthur Schopenhauer , Parerga and Paralipomena

20 " It is really most absurd to wish to turn this scene of misery into a pleasure spot and set ourselves the goal of achieving pleasures and joys instead of freedom from pain, as so many do. Those who, with too gloomy a gaze, regard this world as a kind of hell and, accordingly, are only concerned with procuring a fireproof room in it, are much less mistaken. The fool runs after the pleasures of life and sees himself cheated; the sage avoids evils. "

― Arthur Schopenhauer , Parerga and Paralipomena