58 Philosophical Arthur Schopenhauer Quotes About Life

Enjoy these Arthur Schopenhauer quotes for some good life advice.

Arthur Schopenhauer was a German philosopher born in 1788.

He is best known for characterizing the phenomenal world as the product of a blind and insatiable metaphysical will, which he best explains in his book “The World as Will and Representation”.

Arthur Schopenhauer is one of the great minds that spent his time thinking and learning about his beliefs.

Maybe you have not heard of him, but to show you his fame in the intellectual world, Albert Einstein once used an Arthur Schopenhauer quote to define an issue.

If you like this article, we suggest you explore our most popular quotes article, a list of short inspirational quotes for daily encouragement. 

Read more related content on our inspirational quotes category page.

Arthur Schopenhauer quotes on character and attitude

1. “It is difficult to find happiness within oneself, but it is impossible to find it anywhere else.” – Arthur Schopenhauer

2. “Honor has not to be won; it must only not be lost.” – Arthur Schopenhauer

3. “Compassion for animals is intimately associated with goodness of character, and it may be confidently asserted that he who is cruel to animals cannot be a good man.” – Arthur Schopenhauer

4. “With people of limited ability modesty is merely honesty. But with those who possess great talent, it is hypocrisy.” – Arthur Schopenhauer

5. “A man shows his character just in the way in which he deals with trifles-for then he is off his guard.” – Arthur Schopenhauer

6. “Politeness is to human nature what warmth is to wax.” – Arthur Schopenhauer

7. “In action a great heart is the chief qualification. In work, a great head.” – Arthur Schopenhauer

8. “Will minus intellect constitutes vulgarity.” – Arthur Schopenhauer

9. “Money is human happiness in the abstract, and so the man who is no longer capable of enjoying such happiness in the concrete sets his whole heart on money.” – Arthur Schopenhauer

10. “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

11. “Compassion is the basis of morality.” – Arthur Schopenhauer

12. “Wicked thoughts and worthless efforts gradually set their mark on the face, especially the eyes.” – Arthur Schopenhauer

13. “Happiness consists in frequent repetition of pleasure.” – Arthur Schopenhauer

Arthur Schopenhauer quotes about life

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

15. “Each day is a little life: every waking and rising a little birth, every fresh morning a little youth, every going to rest and sleep a little death.” – Arthur Schopenhauer

16. “The first forty years of life give us the text; the next thirty supply the commentary on it.” – Arthur Schopenhauer

17. “We forfeit three-quarters of ourselves in order to be like other people.” – Arthur Schopenhauer

18. “There is no doubt that life is given us, not to be enjoyed, but to be overcome; to be got over.” – Arthur Schopenhauer

19. “In early youth, as we contemplate our coming life, we are like children in a theater before the curtain is raised, sitting there in high spirits and eagerly waiting for the play to begin.” – Arthur Schopenhauer

20. “Because people have no thoughts to deal with, they deal cards and try to win one another’s money. Idiots!” – Arthur Schopenhauer

21. “Great minds are related to the brief span of time during which they live as great buildings are to a little square in which they stand: you cannot see them in all their magnitude because you are standing too close to them.” – Arthur Schopenhauer

22. “Talent hits a target no one else can hit. Genius hits a target no one else can see.” – Arthur Schopenhauer

23. “Nature shows that with the growth of intelligence comes increased capacity for pain, and it is only with the highest degree of intelligence that suffering reaches its supreme point.” – Arthur Schopenhauer

Wise Arthur Schopenhauer quotes

24. “Truth that is naked is the most beautiful, and the simpler its expression the deeper is the impression it makes.” – Arthur Schopenhauer

25. “If you want to know your true opinion of someone, watch the effect produced in you by the first sight of a letter from him.” – Arthur Schopenhauer

26. “The intellectual attainments of a man who thinks for himself resemble a fine painting, where the light and shade are correct, the tone sustained.” – Arthur Schopenhauer

27. “The fundament upon which all our knowledge and learning rests is the inexplicable.” – Arthur Schopenhauer

28. “The discovery of truth is prevented more effectively, not by the false appearance of things present and which mislead into error, not directly by weakness of the reasoning powers, but by preconceived opinion, by prejudice.” – Arthur Schopenhauer

29. “The greatest achievements of the human mind are generally received with distrust.” – Arthur Schopenhauer

30. “One should use common words to say uncommon things.” – Arthur Schopenhauer

31. “A man can be himself only so long as he is alone; and if he doesn’t love solitude, he will not love freedom; for it is only when he is alone that he is really free.” – Arthur Schopenhauer

32. “It’s the niceties that make the difference fate gives us the hand, and we play the cards.” – Arthur Schopenhauer

33. “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

34. “Reading is merely a surrogate for thinking for yourself; it means letting someone else direct your thoughts.” – Arthur Schopenhauer

35. “The doctor sees all the weakness of mankind; the lawyer all the wickedness, the theologian all the stupidity.” – Arthur Schopenhauer

36. “Mostly it is loss which teaches us about the worth of things.” – Arthur Schopenhauer

37. “Almost all of our sorrows spring out of our relations with other people.” – Arthur Schopenhauer

Insightful Arthur Schopenhauer quotes

38. “Journalists are like dogs, whenever anything moves they begin to bark.” – Arthur Schopenhauer

39. “There are 80,000 prostitutes in London alone and what are they, if not bloody sacrifices on the altar of monogamy?” – Arthur Schopenhauer

40. “Suffering by nature or chance never seems so painful as suffering inflicted on us by the arbitrary will of another.” – Arthur Schopenhauer

41. “The assumption that animals are without rights and the illusion that our treatment of them has no moral significance is a positively outrageous example of Western crudity and barbarity. Universal compassion is the only guarantee of morality.” – Arthur Schopenhauer

42. “If children were brought into the world by an act of pure reason alone, would the human race continue to exist? Would not a man rather have so much sympathy with the coming generation as to spare it the burden of existence, or at any rate not take it upon himself to impose that burden upon it in cold blood?” – Arthur Schopenhauer

43. “This our world, which is so real, with all its suns and milky ways is—nothing.” – Arthur Schopenhauer

44. “Every man takes the limits of his own field of vision for the limits of the world.” – Arthur Schopenhauer

45. “All truth passes through three stages: First, it is ridiculed; Second, it is violently opposed; Third, it is accepted as self-evident.” – Arthur Schopenhauer

46. “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

47. “Change alone is eternal, perpetual, immortal.” – Arthur Schopenhauer

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

49. “To free a person from error is to give, and not to take away.” – Arthur Schopenhauer

50. “The business of the novelist is not to relate great events, but to make small ones interesting.” – Arthur Schopenhauer

More Arthur Schopenhauer quotes

51. “Man can do what he wills but he cannot will what he wills.” – Arthur Schopenhauer

52. “Life is a constant process of dying.” – Arthur Schopenhauer

53. “A sense of humour is the only divine quality of man.” – Arthur Schopenhauer

54. “A high degree of intellect tends to make a man unsocial.” – Arthur Schopenhauer

55. “Treat a work of art like a prince: let it speak to you first.” – Arthur Schopenhauer
If you’re enjoying these quotes, you’ll love our collection of Little Prince quotes about life.

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

57. “Great men are like eagles, and build their nest on some lofty solitude.” – Arthur Schopenhauer

58. “So the problem is not so much to see what nobody has yet seen, as to think what nobody has yet thought concerning that which everybody sees.” – Arthur Schopenhauer

What did you learn from these Arthur Schopenhauer quotes?

Now that you have had an opportunity to get to know more about Arthur Schopenhauer, you can see that he was a man who believed that most of life can be accomplished through thinking things through.

As he alludes to, he believed that people who did not take the time to think would resign themselves to professions such as gambling.

You may or may not agree with Schopenhauer, but there is no argument that he was willing to invest his time and energy pursuing where his thoughts took him.

A person who is willing to follow their thoughts and see where they lead can uncover many truths along the way.

Has Arthur Schopenhauer inspired you to investigate your own thoughts?

Make sure you know what you believe and why you believe it to be truly confident in your beliefs.

What’s your biggest takeaway from these Arthur Schopenhauer quotes and sayings?

Do you have any other favorite quotes to add?

Let us know in the comment section below.