Arthur Schopenhauer
German philosopher (1788 to 1860); author of The World as Will and Representation (1818) and Parerga and Paralipomena (1851), from which his essays on the wisdom of life are drawn.
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What they believe
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Health so outweighs every other blessing that a healthy beggar is happier than a sick king
Health outweighs all other blessings so much that one may really say that a healthy beggar is happier than an ailing king.
gutenberg.orgSaid c. 1851This on korrents
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The safest way not to be very miserable is not to expect to be very happy
For the safest way of not being very miserable is not to expect to be very happy.
gutenberg.orgSaid c. 1851This on korrents
The bold line is korrents’ wording; the quote is theirs. These 2: what they wrote before what they said aloud, one per source, newest first.
Beliefs
Korrents What they believe 8 beliefs — each backed by an exact quote.
Each is a — compiled by korrents.com, not by them: the one-line wordings are korrents', the quotes are theirs.
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Health so outweighs every other blessing that a healthy beggar is happier than a sick king
Health outweighs all other blessings so much that one may really say that a healthy beggar is happier than an ailing king.
The Wisdom of Life (Essays of Arthur Schopenhauer, tr. T. Bailey Saunders) Said c. 1851
Cheerfulness is the direct currency of happiness, and securing it should be the supreme aim of the pursuit of happiness
Cheerfulness is a direct and immediate gain,—the very coin, as it were, of happiness, and not, like all else, merely a cheque upon the bank; for it alone makes us immediately happy in the present moment, and that is the highest blessing for beings like us, whose existence is but an infinitesimal moment between two eternities. To secure and promote this feeling of cheerfulness should be the supreme aim of all our endeavors after happiness.
The Wisdom of Life (Essays of Arthur Schopenhauer, tr. T. Bailey Saunders) Said c. 1851
The more a person has within themselves, the less they want from other people
For the more a man has in himself, the less he will want from other people,—the less, indeed, other people can be to him.
The Wisdom of Life (Essays of Arthur Schopenhauer, tr. T. Bailey Saunders) Said c. 1851
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The value people set on the opinion of others is out of all proportion to anything it can gain them
The truth is that the value we set upon the opinion of others, and our constant endeavor in respect of it, are each quite out of proportion to any result we may reasonably hope to attain; so that this attention to other people's attitude may be regarded as a kind of universal mania which every one inherits.
The Wisdom of Life (Essays of Arthur Schopenhauer, tr. T. Bailey Saunders) Said c. 1851
The safest way not to be very miserable is not to expect to be very happy
For the safest way of not being very miserable is not to expect to be very happy.
Counsels and Maxims (Essays of Arthur Schopenhauer, tr. T. Bailey Saunders) Said c. 1851
The present is the only time that is fully real, and existence lies in it alone
The present alone is true and actual; it is the only time which possesses full reality, and our existence lies in it exclusively.
Counsels and Maxims (Essays of Arthur Schopenhauer, tr. T. Bailey Saunders) Said c. 1851
People should sometimes look at their possessions as they would appear if they had lost them
What I mean is that we should sometimes try to look upon our possessions in the light in which they would appear if we had lost them; whatever they may be, property, health, friends, a wife or child or someone else we love, our horse or our dog—it is usually only when we have lost them that we begin to find out their value.
Counsels and Maxims (Essays of Arthur Schopenhauer, tr. T. Bailey Saunders) Said c. 1851
Each misfortune seems exceptional, but misfortune in general is the rule
Each separate misfortune, as it comes, seems, no doubt, to be something exceptional; but misfortune in general is the rule.
Studies in Pessimism (Essays of Arthur Schopenhauer, tr. T. Bailey Saunders) Said c. 1851
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