180 Arthur Schopenhauer Quotes from the German Philosopher

Arthur Schopenhauer born on February 22, 1788 was a distinguished German philosopher and the son of Heinrich Floris Schopenhauer, a wealthy merchant and Johanna Schopenhauer, a famous novelist.

His education commenced at home under tutors, later continuing at the University of Göttingen and the University of Berlin.

Schopenhauer harbored interests in music, literature and visual arts.

His seminal work, “The World as Will and Representation,” first published in 1818 and later expanded in 1844, cemented his philosophical legacy.

Frequently dubbed the “philosopher of pessimism,” Schopenhauer developed a metaphysical doctrine of the will, presenting a counter-narrative to Hegelian idealism.

Related: Julius Evola Quotes from the Italian Philosopher and Karl Marx Quotes from German Philosopher

His writings have exerted a profound influence on existential philosophy and Freudian psychology.

Schopenhauer’s life journey concluded on September 21, 1860 in Frankfurt am Main, Germany.

Below you will find some of my favorite quotes from Arthur Schopenhauer.

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Best Arthur Schopenhauer Quotes

Everybody’s friend is nobody’s. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

Life without pain has no meaning. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

To feel envy is human, to savor schadenfreude is devilish. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

Great men are like eagles, and build their nest on some lofty solitude. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

Scoundrels are always sociable. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

A sense of humor is the only divine quality of man. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

Change alone is eternal, perpetual, immortal. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

It is only when a man is alone that he is really free. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

The ordinary man places his life’s happiness in things external to him, in property, rank, wife and children, friends, society, and the like, so that when he loses them or finds them disappointing, the foundation of his happiness is destroyed. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

Ordinary people merely think how they shall ‘spend’ their time; a man of talent tries to ‘use’ it. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

Religions are like fireflies. They require darkness in order to shine. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

It is a clear gain to sacrifice pleasure in order to avoid pain. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

No one can transcend their own individuality. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

It is not what things are objectively and in themselves, but what they are for us, in our way of looking at them, that makes us happy or the reverse. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

It is difficult to keep quiet if you have nothing to do. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

Because people have no thoughts to deal in, they deal cards, and try and win one another’s money. Idiots! ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

In the whole world there is no study so beneficial and so elevating as that of the Upanishads. It has been the solace of my life, it will be the solace of my death. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

The more unintelligent a man is, the less mysterious existence seems to him. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

Almost all of our sorrows spring out of our relations with other people. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

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.

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.

To buy books would be a good thing if we also could buy the time to read them. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

I have not yet spoken my last word about women. I believe that if a woman succeeds in withdrawing from the mass, or rather raising herself from above the mass, she grows ceaselessly and more than a man. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

Life is a constant process of dying. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

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.

A major difficulty in translation is that a word in one language seldom has a precise equivalent in another one. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

I believe that when death closes our eyes we shall awaken to a light, of which our sunlight is but the shadow. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

Popular Arthur Schopenhauer Quotes

The Universe is a dream dreamed by a single dreamer where all the dream characters dream too. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

Mostly it is loss which teaches us about the worth of things. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

We forfeit three-quarters of ourselves in order to be like other people. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

The world is my representation. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

Just remember, once you’re over the hill you begin to pick up speed. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

The common man is not concerned about the passage of time, the man of talent is driven by it. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

Intellect is invisible to the man who has none. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

The shortness of life, so often lamented, may be the best thing about it. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

Satisfaction consists in freedom from pain, which is the positive element of life. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

Genuine contempt, on the other hand, is the unsullied conviction of the worthlessness of another. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

To be alone is the fate of all great minds – a fate deplored at times, but still always chosen as the less grievous of two evils. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

A man can do what he wants, but not want what he wants. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

He who does not enjoy solitude will not love freedom. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

Vulgar people take huge delight in the faults and follies of great men. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

Whatever folly men commit, be their shortcomings or their vices what they may, let us exercise forbearance; remember that when these faults appear in others it is our follies and vices that we behold. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

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

Vedas are the most rewarding and the most elevating book which can be possible in the world. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

Intellect is a magnitude of intensity, not a magnitude of extensity. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

No doubt, when modesty was made a virtue, it was a very advantageous thing for the fools, for everybody is expected to speak of himself as if he were one. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

Life is a business that does not cover the costs. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

Every child is in a way a genius; and every genius is in a way a child. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

Solitude will be welcomed or endured or avoided, according as a man’s personal value is large or small. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

Sleep is the interest we have to pay on the capital which is called in at death; and the higher the rate of interest and the more regularly it is paid, the further the date of redemption is postponed. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

What a person is for himself, what abides with him in his loneliness and isolation, and what no one can give or take away from him, this is obviously more essential for him than everything that he possesses or what he may be in the eyes of others… ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

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

Money is human happiness in the abstract. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

Top Arthur Schopenhauer Quotes

If a relationship is perfectly natural there will be a complete fusion of the happiness of both of you-owing to fellow-feeling and various other laws which govern our natures, this is, quite simply, the greatest happiness that can exist. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

Man can do what he wills but he cannot will what he wills. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

Money is human happiness in the abstract; he, then, who is no longer capable of enjoying human happiness in the concrete devotes himself utterly to money. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

The man who goes up in a balloon does not feel as if he were ascending; he only sees the earth sinking deeper below him. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

A hedge between keeps friendship green. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

Every man takes the limits of his own field of vision for the limits of the world. This is an error of the intellect as inevitable as that error of the eye which lets you fancy that on the horizon heaven and earth meet. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

The difficulty is to try and teach the multitude that something can be true and untrue at the same time. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

Honor has not to be won; it must only not be lost. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

The nobler and more perfect a thing is, the later and slower it is in arriving at maturity. A man reaches the maturity of his reasoning powers and mental faculties hardly before the age of twenty-eight; a woman at eighteen. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

The truth can wait, for it lives a long life. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

One should use common words to say uncommon things. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

We seldom think of what we have but always of what we lack. Therefore, rather than grateful, we are bitter. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

He who has lost all hope has also lost all fear;. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

A high degree of intellect tends to make a man unsocial. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

Thus also every keen pleasure is an error and an illusion, for no attained wish can give lasting satisfaction. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

Console yourself by remembering that the world doesn’t deserve your affection. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

Famous Arthur Schopenhauer Quotes

The safest way of not being very miserable is not to expect to be very happy. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

A man can be himself only so long as he is alone; and if he does not love solitude, he will not love freedom; for it is only when he is alone that he is really free. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

In reading, the mind is, in fact, only the playground of another’s thoughts. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

A pessimist is an optimist in full possession of the facts. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

Every miserable fool who has nothing at all of which he can be proud, adopts as a last resource pride in the nation to which he belongs; he is ready and happy to defend all its faults and follies tooth and nail, thus reimbursing himself for his own inferiority. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

Human life must be some form of mistake. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

Reading is equivalent to thinking with someone else’s head instead of with one’s own. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

Materialism is the philosophy of the subject who forgets to take account of himself. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

The present is the only reality and the only certainty. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

This world could not have been the work of an all-loving being, but that of a devil, who had brought creatures into existence in order to delight in the sight of their sufferings. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

There is only one inborn error. and that is the notion that we exist in order to be happy. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

The life of every individual is really always a tragedy, but gone through in detail, it has the character of a comedy. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

Will without intellect is the most vulgar and common thing in the world, possessed by every blockhead, who, in the gratification of his passions, shows the stuff of which he is made. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

There is no opinion, however absurd, which men will not readily embrace as soon as they can be brought to the conviction that it is generally adopted. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

It is only in the microscope that our life looks so big. It is an indivisible point, drawn out and magnified by the powerful lenses of Time and Space. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

The greatest of follies is to sacrifice health for any other kind of happiness. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

Every original idea is first ridiculed, then vigorously attacked, and finally taken for granted. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

Women remain children all their lives, for they always see only what is near at hand, cling to the present, take the appearance of a thing for reality, and prefer trifling matters to the most important. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

Ultimate Arthur Schopenhauer Quotes

Hope is the confusion of the desire for a thing with its probability. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

Patriotism is the passion of fools and the most foolish of passions. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

Faith is like love: it does not let itself be forced. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

Every generation, no matter how paltry its character, thinks itself much wiser than the one immediately preceding it, let alone those that are more remote. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

Genius is to other gifts what the carbuncle is to the precious stones. It sends forth its own light, whereas other stones only reflect borrowed light. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

Reason deserves to be called a prophet; for in showing us the consequence and effect of our actions in the present, does it not tell us what the future will be? ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

Every nation ridicules other nations, and all are right. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

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

Talent hits a target no one else can hit; Genius hits a target no one else can see. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

The two enemies of human happiness are pain and boredom. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

Time is that in which all things pass away. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

To read a book is to hold an entire world in the palm of your hand. That world is unique to you; no two readers can ever inhabit the same world. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

Every satisfaction he attains lays the seeds of some new desire, so that there is no end to the wishes of each individual will. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

Genius and madness have something in common: both live in a world that is different from that which exists for everyone else. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

All our wanting comes from needs, thus we continuously suffer. The intellect teaches free will, free from suffering. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

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

Directly after copulation, the devil’s laughter is heard. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

The tallest oak tree once was an acorn that any pig could have swallowed. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

Truth that is naked is the most beautiful, and the simpler its expression the deeper is the impression it makes. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

Pantheism is only a polite form of atheism. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

We seldom speak of what we have but often of what we lack. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

What a man is: that is to say, personality, in the widest sense of the word; under which are included health, strength, beauty, temperament, moral character, intelligence, and education. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

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

Great Arthur Schopenhauer Quotes

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

Compassion is the basis of morality. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

No greater mistake can be made than to imagine that what has been written latest is always the more correct; that what is written later on is an improvement on what was written previously; and that every change means progress. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

I know of no more beautiful prayer than that which the Hindus of old used in closing: May all that have life be delivered from suffering. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

Every genius is a great child; he gazes out at the world as something strange, a spectacle, and therefore with purely objective interest. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

Each day is a little life. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

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.

Consciousness is the mere surface of our minds, of which, as of the earth, we do not know the inside, but only the crust. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

Will power is to the mind like a strong blind man who carries on his shoulders a lame man who can see. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

It is only the man whose intellect is clouded by his sexual impulse that could give the name of the fair sex to that undersized, narrow-shouldered, broad-hipped, and short-legged race. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

There is something in us that is wiser than our head. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

Talent works for money and fame; the motive which moves genius to productivity is, on the other hand, less easy to determine. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

Men are the devils of the earth, and the animals are its tormented souls. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

Life swings like a pendulum backward and forward between pain and boredom. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

The young should early be trained to bear being left alone; for it is a source of happiness and peace of mind. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

In their hearts women think that it is men’s business to earn money and theirs to spend it. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

Man is never happy, but spends his whole life in striving after something which he thinks will make him so. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

You must treat a work of art like a great man: stand before it and wait patiently till it deigns to speak. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

The world is not a factory and animals are not products for our use. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

Astrology furnishes a splendid proof of the contemptible subjectivity of men. It refers the course of celestial bodies to the miserable ego: it establishes a connection between the comets in heaven and squabbles and rascalities on earth. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

Noise is the most impertinent of all forms of interruption. It is not only an interruption, but also a disruption of thought. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

A man becomes a philosopher by reason of a certain perplexity, from which he seeks to free himself. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

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. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

Wise Arthur Schopenhauer Quotes

Genius is an intellect that has become unfaithful to its destiny. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

Every man takes the limits of his own field of vision for the limits of the world. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

Ignorance is degrading only when found in company with great riches. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

Every parting gives a foretaste of death, every reunion a hint of the resurrection. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

The cause of laughter is simply the sudden perception of the incongruity between a concept and the real project. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

Music is the melody whose text is the world. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

Men are by nature merely indifferent to one another; but women are by nature enemies. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

Nothing shocks our moral feelings so deeply as cruelty does. We can forgive every other crime, but not cruelty. The reason for this is that it is the very opposite of compassion. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

The beard, being a half-mask, should be forbidden by the police – It is, moreover, as a sexual symbol in the middle of the face, obscene: that is why it pleases women. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

There are three stages in the revelation of truth. The first is to be ridiculed, the second is to be resisted and the third is to be considered self-evident. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

Our life is a loan received from death with sleep as the daily interest on this loan. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

The alchemists in their search for gold discovered many other things of greater value. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

To overcome difficulties is to experience the full delight of existence. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

In savage countries they eat one another, in civilized they deceive one another; and that is what people call the way of the world! ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

Truth is most beautiful undraped. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

The person who writes for fools is always sure of a large audience. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

A word too much always defeats its purpose. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

Life is short and truth works far and lives long: let us speak the truth. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

In our monogamous part of the world, to marry means to halve one’s rights and double one’s duties. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

We can regard our life as a uselessly disturbing episode in the blissful repose of nothingness. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

No rose without a thorn but many a thorn without a rose. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

A good supply of resignation is of the first importance in providing for the journey of life. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

Life is full of troubles and vexations, that one must either rise above it by means of corrected thoughts, or leave it. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

After your death you will be what you were before your birth. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

What now on the other hand makes people sociable is their incapacity to endure solitude and thus themselves. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

For the world is Hell, and men are on the one hand the tormented souls and on the other the devils in it. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

When you look back on your life, it looks as though it were a plot, but when you are into it, it’s a mess: just one surprise after another. Then, later, you see it was perfect. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

To gain anything we have longed for is only to discover how vain and empty it is; and even though we are always living in expectation of better things, at the same time we often repent and long to have the past back again. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

I’ve never known any trouble than an hour’s reading didn’t assuage. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

It is difficult to find happiness within oneself, but it is impossible to find it anywhere else. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

Amazing Arthur Schopenhauer Quotes

Pleasure is never as pleasant as we expected it to be and pain is always more painful. The pain in the world always outweighs the pleasure. If you don’t believe it, compare the respective feelings of two animals, one of which is eating the other. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

The effect of music is so very much more powerful and penetrating than is that of the other arts, for these others speak only of the shadow, but music of the essence. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

Music is the answer to the mystery of life. The most profound of all the arts, It expresses the deepest thoughts of life. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

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

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.

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. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

If God made this world, then I would not want to be the God. It is full of misery and distress that it breaks my heart. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

Exaggeration of every kind is as essential to journalism as it is to dramatic art, for the object of journalism is to make events go as far as possible. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

What people commonly call fate is mostly their own stupidity. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

Man is the only animal who causes pain to others with no other object than wanting to do so. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

Every possession and every happiness is but lent by chance for an uncertain time, and may therefore be demanded back the next hour. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

Journalists are like dogs, whenever anything moves they begin to bark. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

To live alone is the fate of all great souls. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

Night gives a black look to everything, whatever it may be. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

The first forty years of our life give the text, the next thirty furnish the commentary upon it, which enables us rightly to understand the true meaning and connection of the text with its moral and its beauties. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer.

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So these were the 180 top Arthur Schopenhauer quotes on life, love, human nature, death, truth and marriage.

If you like these quotes and sayings, then you can also read my other posts on Joan of Arc quotes and Bell Hooks quotes.

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Short Biography of Arthur Schopenhauer

Arthur Schopenhauer, a 19th-century philosopher, thought the universe was inherently irrational, contrasting with Plato and Kant’s more rational views.

He suggested focusing less on desires to achieve peace and kindness in a tough world.

Though seen as a pessimist, Schopenhauer offered strategies to cope with life’s challenges through art and moral awareness.

Full Name	Arthur Schopenhauer
Born	February 22, 1788, Gdańsk, Poland
Died	September 21, 1860 (age 72 years), Free City of Frankfurt
Nationality	German
Influenced	Sigmund Freud, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Irvin D. Yalom
Influenced by	Immanuel Kant, Plato, Aristotle, Baruch Spinoza
Era	19th-century philosophy
Region	Western philosophy
Institutions	University of Berlin
Main interests	Metaphysics, Aesthetics, Ethics, Morality and Psychology
Parents	Johanna Schopenhauer, Heinrich Floris Schopenhauer
Siblings	Adele Schopenhauer

His ideas continue to resonate, especially among those pondering life’s purpose and involved in creative fields.

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Quick Facts about Arthur Schopenhauer

• He’s known as the artist’s philosopher because his work inspired many artists.
• Schopenhauer is famous for his pessimistic worldview, questioning the value of existence.
• His writing style is celebrated for its elegance and clarity.
• Despite his significant contributions, he wasn’t as famous as some of his contemporaries during his lifetime.
• Influenced notable figures like Freud, Wittgenstein, and Nietzsche.
• He was the first German philosopher to integrate Eastern thought into his work.
• Schopenhauer viewed the world as essentially irrational, contrasting with other German Romanticists.
• An atheist, he stayed outside the academic profession, unlike his peers who were often involved in theological debates.
• His strained relationship with his mother, Johanna, led to them parting ways when he was 30.
• Schopenhauer had a difficult relationship with academia, famously scheduling his lectures to compete with Hegel’s.
• His major work, “The World as Will and Representation,” received little attention initially.
• Schopenhauer’s philosophy gained recognition later in his life, especially after the publication of “Parerga and Paralipomena.”
• He died in 1860, finally enjoying the fame he deserved.
• Schopenhauer’s metaphysics posits that the will is the inner nature of everything.
• He argues that the phenomenal world is our representation, shaped by our cognition.
• In his aesthetics, Schopenhauer emphasizes the importance of artistic contemplation and the perception of Ideas.
• He believed that genius lies in the ability to perceive the essence of things, beyond mere appearances.
• His ethics are based on compassion and the recognition of the suffering of others.
• Schopenhauer’s view on human agency suggests that actions are determined, yet we experience them as originating from our character.
• He criticizes Kant’s deontological ethics, proposing instead that morality stems from empathy.
• The philosopher’s pessimism extends to his view of human existence and the constant striving characterized by the will.
• Schopenhauer’s work laid the groundwork for existential and nihilistic themes in later philosophy.
• He maintained that art provides a temporary escape from the suffering inherent in life.
• Despite his philosophical pessimism, Schopenhauer’s work offers profound insights into aesthetics and the human condition.
• His critique of Hegel and Fichte reflects his disdain for academic philosophy’s complexity and detachment from practical concerns.
• Schopenhauer’s philosophy is notable for its emphasis on individual perception and experience.
• He was deeply influenced by Kant, yet he diverged significantly in his views on the nature of reality and the role of the will.
• His ideas on freedom and morality highlight the tension between determinism and the sense of personal responsibility.
• Schopenhauer’s legacy is marked by his ability to blend Eastern and Western philosophical traditions, offering a unique perspective on the nature of reality and human existence.

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Top Questions about Arthur Schopenhauer