Arthur Schopenhauer

“Motivele care-i determină pe oameni să acţioneze sunt în număr de trei: a) Egoismul, care determină bunăstarea individului; el este fără margini; b) Răutatea, care doreşte nenorocirea aproapelui; c) Mila, care vrea binele aproapelui; ea merge până la nobleţe şi grandoare. Orice acţiune omenească are drept cauză unul din aceste mobile, lucrând în parte sau împreună. Egoismul de care cu toţii suntem plini şi pe care-l ascundem din politeţe se trădează în momentul în care instinctiv căutăm în fiecare persoană pe care-o vedem o relaţie sau un mijloc de parvenire către unul din scopurile pe care le urmărim. Când facem o cunoştinţă nouă primul nostru gând este de a şti dacă şi cât ne poate fi folositoare; dacă nu poate, nu reprezintă nimic pentru noi. Este în natura fiinţei umane să vadă în aproapele său un posibil mijloc pentru a-şi atinge scopurile.”

“Efortul neincetat de a izgoni suferinta nu are alt rezultat decit o schimbare de suprafata. La origine ea apare sub forma necesitatii si a grijilor materiale. In cazul in care prin munca si eforturi deosebite reusim s-o izgonim sub aceasta forma si infatisare, suferinta se transforma, fiind in continuare prezenta, raportata la virsta si tinind seama de factorul intimplare, sub forma instinctului sexual, geloziei, pasiunii, invidiei, urii, fricii, bolii, zgirceniei etc.”

“Orice animal de prada ajunge mormintul viu a inca o mie de alti pradatori si nu rezista in timp decit cu pretul unui lung sir de martirii. Inteligenta mareste capacitatea de a suferii, atingind la om gradul cel mai inalt.”

“Caci avutia este ca apa sarata: cu cat bei cu atat ti-e mai este. La fel este si gloria.”

“Mancarea buna, vinurile alese – iata scopul suprem al existentei; sa-si procure tot ce contribuie la binele sau material este tinta vietii sale. Seriozitatea rece, lipsita de sens este proprie filistinului si-l caracterizeaza. Odata sfarsite placerile materiale, societatea filistinilor devine curand plictisitoare. Pana si jocul de carti devine monoton.”

“Natura se amuza citeodata formind combinatii caraghioase. Sint unii care-ntr-una casca ochii la nimicuri si rid ca papagalii in fata unui simplu cintaret din cimpoi; iar altii au o infatisare asa de posomorita, incit nici macar n-ar suride auzind o gluma buna. Nu s-a spus adesea ca, in fond, spiritul cel mai limitat este cel mai fericit?”

“Omul ordinar este preocupat sa-si omoare timpul, omul de spirit va sti intotdeauna cum sa si-l intrebuinteze. De aceea, jocul de carti a ajuns ocupatia predilecta in orice societate. Neavind idei de schimbat, oamenii schimba cartea la masa si-si cistiga banii unii altora. Cei care nu stiu nici atit, sau sint de-a dreptul prosti, bat darabana cu degetele-n masa.Tigarea inlocuieste, de asemenea, gindirea, atunci cind nu are ce stimula.”

“Puterile lumii sint trei: inetligenta, forta si fericirea.”

“Byron, in “Don Juan”, face o satira amara la adresa femeilor care transforma dragostea intr-o “afacere de cap” uitind ca au “inima”. Capul vine dupa inima, caci nu el este centrul corpului, ci o dezvoltare a lui. Cind moare un erou i se imbalsameaza inima, in timp ce filozofii si poetii au parte, dupa moarte, de cercetarea amanuntita a craniului si creierului.”

“Animalul nu cunoaste moartea decit in momentul ultimei expiratii, pe cind omul se apropie de momentul fatal constient fiind de pasii care-l apropie neincetat de abisul insondabil.”

“Die, welche schwierige, dunkle, verflochtene, zweideutige Reden zusammensetzen, wissen ganz gewiss nicht recht, was sie sagen wollen, sondern haben nur ein dumpfes, nach einem Gedanken erst ringendes Bewusstsein davon; oft aber wollen sie sich selber und anderen verbergen, dass sie eigentlich nichts zu sagen haben.”

“Mitleid mit den Thieren hängt mit der Güte des Charakters so genau zusammen, daß man zuversichtlich behaupten darf, wer gegen Thiere grausam ist, könne kein guter Mensch seyn.”

“Hence, in all countries the chief occupation of society is card-playing, and it is the gauge of its value, and an outward sign that it is bankrupt in thought. Because people have no thoughts to deal in, they deal cards, and try and win one another’s money. Idiots!”

“This is the case with many learned persons; they have read themselves stupid.”

“Treat a work of art like a prince: let it speak to you first.”

“A sense of humour is the only divine quality of man”

“A man who has not enough originality to think out a new title for his book will be much less capable of giving it new contents.”

“For the world is Hell, and men are on the one hand the tormented souls and on the other the devils in it.”

“How very paltry and limited the normal human intellect is, and how little lucidity there is in the human consciousness, may be judged from the fact that, despite the ephemeral brevity of human life, the uncertainty of our existence and the countless enigmas which press upon us from all sides, everyone does not continually and ceaselessly philosophize, but that only the rarest of exceptions do.”

“We can regard our life as a uselessly disturbing episode in the blissful repose of nothingness.”

“The life of every individual, viewed as a whole and in general, and when only its most significant features are emphasized, is really a tragedy; but gone through in detail it has the character of a comedy.”

“What disturbs and depresses young people is the hunt for happiness on the firm assumption that it must be met with in life. From this arises constantly deluded hope and so also dissatisfaction. Deceptive images of a vague happiness hover before us in our dreams, and we search in vain for their original. Much would have been gained if, through timely advice and instruction, young people could have had eradicated from their minds the erroneous notion that the world has a great deal to offer them.”

“I have long held the opinion that the amount of noise that anyone can bear undisturbed stands in inverse proportion to his mental capacity and therefore be regarded as a pretty fair measure of it.”

“Almost all of our sorrows spring out of our relations with other people. There is no more mistaken path to happiness than worldliness.”

“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.”

“Wealth is like sea-water; the more we drink, the thirstier we become; and the same is true of fame.”

“To find out your real opinion of someone, judge the impression you have when you first see a letter from them.”

“The shortness of life, so often lamented, may be the best thing about it.”

“Rascals are always sociable, and the chief sign that a man has any nobility in his character is the little pleasure he takes in others company.”

“Buying books would be a good thing if one could also buy the time to read them; but as a rule the purchase of books is mistaken for the appropriation of their contents.”

“To free a man from error is to give, not to take away. Knowledge that a thing is false is a truth. Error always does harm; sooner or later it will bring mischief to the man who harbors it.”

“Religion is the masterpiece of the art of animal training, for it trains people as to how they shall think. ”

“If the world were a paradise of luxury and ease, a land flowing with milk and honey, where every Jack obtained his Jill at once and without any difficulty, men would either die of boredom or hang themselves; or there would be wars, massacres, and murders; so that in the end mankind would inflict more suffering on itself than it has now to accept at the hands of Nature.”

“One can never read too little of bad, or too much of good books: bad books are intellectual poison; they destroy the mind.In order to read what is good one must make it a condition never to read what is bad; for life is short, and both time and strength limited.”

“They tell us that Suicide is the greatest piece of Cowardice... That Suicide is wrong; when it is quite obvious that there is nothing in this world to which every man has a more unassailable title than to his own life and person.”

“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.”

“That I could clamber to the frozen moon. And draw the ladder after me.”

“there are very few who can think, but every man wants to have an opinion; and what remains but to take it ready-made from others, instead of forming opinions for himself?”

“In our early youth we sit before the life that lies ahead of us like children sitting before the curtain in a theatre, in happy and tense anticipation of whatever is going to appear. Luckily we do not know what really will appear.”

“If we were not all so interested in ourselves, life would be so uninteresting that none of us would be able to endure it.”

“The conviction that the world, and therefore man too, is something which really ought not to exist is in fact calculated to instil in us indulgence towards one another: for what can be expected of beings placed in such a situation as we are? From this point of view one might indeed consider that the appropriate form of address between man and man ought to be, not monsieur, sir, but fellow sufferer, compagnon de misères. However strange this may sound it corresponds to the nature of the case, makes us see other men in a true light and reminds us of what are the most necessary of all things: tolerance, patience, forbearance and charity, which each of us needs and which each of us therefore owes.”

“The art of not reading is a very important one. It consists in not taking an interest in whatever may be engaging the attention of the general public at any particular time. When some political or ecclesiastical pamphlet, or novel, or poem is making a great commotion, you should remember that he who writes for fools always finds a large public. A precondition for reading good books is not reading bad ones: for life is short.”

“Faith is like love: it does not let itself be forced.”

“The person who writes for fools is always sure of a large audience.”

“The actual life of a thought lasts only until it reaches the point of speech...As soon as our thinking has found words it ceases to be sincere...When it begins to exist in others it ceases to live in us, just as the child severs itself from its mother when it enters into its own existence.”

“Many undoubtedly owe their good fortune to the circumstance that they possess a pleasing smile with which they win hearts. Yet these hearts would do better to beware and to learn from Hamlet's tables that one may smile, and smile, and be a villain.”

“Just as one spoils the stomach by overfeeding and thereby impairs the whole body, so can one overload and choke the mind by giving it too much nourishment. For the more one reads the fewer are the traces left of what one has read; the mind is like a tablet that has been written over and over. Hence it is impossible to reflect; and it is only by reflection that one can assimilate what one has read. If one reads straight ahead without pondering over it later, what has been read does not take root, but is for the most part lost.”

“Mostly it is loss which teaches us about the worth of things.”

“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.”

“If life — the craving for which is the very essence of our being — were possessed of any positive intrinsic value, there would be no such thing as boredom at all: mere existence would satisfy us in itself, and we should want for nothing.”