Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860)

Quotes

• Every person takes the limits of their own field of vision for the limits of the world.

• If there is anything in the world that can really be called a man's property, it is surely that which is the result of his mental activity.

• We forfeit three-fourths of ourselves in order to be like other people.

• Every nation ridicules other nations, and all are right.

• Every nation ridicules other nations -- and all are right.

• Everyone takes the limits of his own vision for the limits of the world.

• All truth passes through 3 stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.

• 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.

• The amount of noise which anyone can bear undisturbed stands in inverse proportion to his mental capacity.

• The closing years of life are like the end of a masquerade party when the masks are dropped.

• If we weren't all so interested in ourselves, life would be so uninteresting we couldn't endure it.

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

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

• Talent hits a target no one else can hit; Genius hits a target no one else can see.

• Honor has not to be won; it must only not be lost.

• Compassion is the basis of all morality.

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

• The memory should be specially taxed in youth, since it is then that it is strongest and most tenacious. But in choosing the things that should be committed to memory the utmost care and forethought must be exercised; as lessons well learnt in youth are never forgotten.