30 quotes by Arthur Schopenhauer for those who like philosophy

We rarely think about what we have, but always about what we lack.

Each generation that passes quickly reaches, of all human knowledge, only what it needs.

There is no greater mistake than believing that the last word said is always the most correct, that something written more recently constitutes an improvement on what has been written before, that all change is progress.

A book can never be more than the impression of the author’s thoughts.

In the presence of imbeciles and madmen, there is only one way to show our intelligence: not to talk to them.

The greatest mistake a man can make is to sacrifice his health to any other advantage.

Fate is the one who shuffles the cards, but we are the ones who play them.

The first 40 years of life give us the text; the next 30 provide commentary on it.

Wealth is like seawater: the more we drink, the thirstier we feel.

Reading means thinking with someone else’s head instead of one’s own.

The less intelligent a man is, the less mysterious his existence seems to him.

In fact, everything that is sensible is uncertain insofar as it proceeds from the field of the senses.

The sign of an eminent head is to sum up many thoughts in a few words.

A translation library is like an art gallery that only displays copies.

Only when the truth has been acquired by his own thought, through the efforts of his intellect, does he become a member of his own body, and that truth alone really belongs to us.

Bad books are intellectual poison, capable of withering the spirit.

Glory is the later the more lasting it will be, because all delicious fruit ripens slowly.

What makes people sociable is their inability to bear loneliness and, in it, themselves.

I don’t know how many ways there are to win an argument without being right.

Most men are not capable of thinking, but only of believing, and are not accessible to reason, but only to authority.

Compassion for animals is closely connected with goodness of character, and it can be safely asserted that he who is cruel to animals cannot be a good man.

Religions, like lights, need darkness to shine.

The young must, from a very early age, be able to be alone; this is a source of happiness and peace of mind.

Every child is, in a way, a genius. And every genius is, in a way, a child.

If it is true that a God made this world, I did not want to be that God: the pains of the world would tear my heart to pieces.

The mistakes of great spirits spread their nefarious influence over entire generations.

When I was younger, he said, “I tended to be sociable, but then, little by little, I acquired a taste for solitude, I became less sociable and decided to dedicate myself entirely to myself for the rest of this fleeting life.”