To expect a man to retain everything that he has ever read is like expecting him to carry about in his body everything that he has ever eaten. Arthur Schopenhauer More Quotes by Arthur Schopenhauer More Quotes From Arthur Schopenhauer To conceal a want of real ideas, many make for themselves an imposing apparatus of long compound words, intricate flourishes and phrases, new and unheard-of expressions, all of which together furnish an extremely difficult jargon that sounds very learned. Yet with all this they say-precisely nothing. Arthur Schopenhauer real expression ideas It is a clear gain to sacrifice pleasure in order to avoid pain. Arthur Schopenhauer philosophical pain inspirational The charlatan takes very different shapes according to circumstances; but at bottom he is a man who cares nothing about knowledge for its own sake, and only strives to gain the semblance of Arthur Schopenhauer who-cares selfish men 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 library may knowledge A man never is happy, but spends his whole life in striving after something which he thinks will make him so; he seldom attains his goal, and when he does, it is only to be disappointed; he is mostly shipwrecked in the end, and comes into harbor with mast and rigging gone. And then, it is all one whether he has been happy or miserable; for his life was never anything more than a present moment always vanishing; and now it is over. Arthur Schopenhauer goal men thinking 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 men mean reality The common man is not concerned about the passage of time, the man of talent is driven by it. Arthur Schopenhauer success time men That human life must be some kind of mistake is sufficiently proved by the simple observation that man is a compound of needs which are hard to satisfy; that their satisfaction achieves nothing but a painless condition in which he is only given over to boredom . . . Arthur Schopenhauer simple mistake men We seldom speak of what we have but often of what we lack. Arthur Schopenhauer speak Truth is no harlot who throws her arms round the neck of him who does not desire her; on the contrary, she is so coy a beauty that even the man who sacrifices everything to her can still not be certain of her favors. Arthur Schopenhauer sacrifice desire men There is only one inborn error. and that is the notion that we exist in order to be happy. Arthur Schopenhauer errors happiness order 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 mankind stupidity dog To form a judgment intuitively is the privilege of few; authority and example lead the rest of the world. They see with the eyes of others, they hear with the ears of others. Therefore it is very easy to think as all the world now think; but to think as all the world will think thirty years hence is not in the power of every one. Arthur Schopenhauer eye years thinking If a person is stupid, we excuse him by saying that he cannot help it; but if we attempted to excuse in precisely the same way the person who is bad, we should be laughed at. Arthur Schopenhauer stupid helping way Great men are like eagles, and build their nest on some lofty solitude. Arthur Schopenhauer philosophical greatness men All religions promise a reward beyond life, in eternity, for excellences of the will or heart, but none for excellences of the head or understanding. Arthur Schopenhauer understanding heart promise Our civilized world is nothing but a great masquerade. You encounter knights, parsons, soldiers, doctors, lawyers, priests, philosophers and a thousand more: but they are not what they appear - they are merely masks... Usually, as I say, there is nothing but industrialists, businessmen and speculators concealed behind all these masks. Arthur Schopenhauer doctors knights soldier Pride is an established conviction of one’s own paramount worth in some particular respect, while vanity is the desire of rousing such a conviction in others, and it is generally accompanied by the secret hope of ultimately coming to the same conviction oneself. 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 vanity pride appreciation To buy books would be a good thing if we could also buy the time to read them; but the purchase of books is often mistaken for the assimilation and mastering of their contents. Arthur Schopenhauer reading funny book Will power is to the mind like a strong blind man who carries on his shoulders a lame man who can see. Arthur Schopenhauer being-strong motivational life
