Arthur Schopenhauer
Buying books would be a good thing if one could also buy the time to read them in: but as a rule the purchase of books is mistaken for the appropriation of their contents.Collection: Good
Every possession and every happiness is but lent by chance for an uncertain time, and may therefore be demanded back the next hour.Collection: Chance
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.Collection: Morning
Friends and acquaintances are the surest passport to fortune.Collection: Money
Almost all of our sorrows spring out of our relations with other people.Collection: Sympathy
There is no absurdity so palpable but that it may be firmly planted in the human head if you only begin to inculcate it before the age of five, by constantly repeating it with an air of great solemnity.Collection: Great
They tell us that suicide is the greatest piece of cowardice... that suicide is wrong; when it is quite obvious that there is nothing in the world to which every man has a more unassailable title than to his own life and person.Collection: Death
Talent hits a target no one else can hit; Genius hits a target no one else can see.Collection: Intelligence
The fundament upon which all our knowledge and learning rests is the inexplicable.Collection: Knowledge
Newspapers are the second hand of history. This hand, however, is usually not only of inferior metal to the other hands, it also seldom works properly.Collection: History
Martyrdom is the only way a man can become famous without ability.Collection: Famous
Men are by nature merely indifferent to one another; but women are by nature enemies.Collection: Nature
Patriotism, when it wants to make itself felt in the domain of learning, is a dirty fellow who should be thrown out of doors.Collection: Patriotism
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.Collection: Money
Politeness is to human nature what warmth is to wax.Collection: Nature
After your death you will be what you were before your birth.Collection: Death
We can come to look upon the deaths of our enemies with as much regret as we feel for those of our friends, namely, when we miss their existence as witnesses to our success.Collection: Success
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.Collection: Intelligence
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.Collection: Alone
Religion is the masterpiece of the art of animal training, for it trains people as to how they shall think.Collection: Religion
Satisfaction consists in freedom from pain, which is the positive element of life.Collection: Life
As the biggest library if it is in disorder is not as useful as a small but well-arranged one, so you may accumulate a vast amount of knowledge but it will be of far less value than a much smaller amount if you have not thought it over for yourself.Collection: Knowledge
Treat a work of art like a prince. Let it speak to you first.Collection: Art
In action a great heart is the chief qualification. In work, a great head.Collection: Wisdom
We forfeit three-quarters of ourselves in order to be like other people.Collection: Brainy
The greatest of follies is to sacrifice health for any other kind of happiness.Collection: Health
Great men are like eagles, and build their nest on some lofty solitude.Collection: Nature
Will power is to the mind like a strong blind man who carries on his shoulders a lame man who can see.Collection: Power
I've never known any trouble than an hour's reading didn't assuage.Collection: Education
All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.Collection: Truth
To live alone is the fate of all great souls.Collection: Great
The first forty years of life give us the text; the next thirty supply the commentary on it.Collection: Life
Suffering by nature or chance never seems so painful as suffering inflicted on us by the arbitrary will of another.Collection: Nature
Every parting gives a foretaste of death, every reunion a hint of the resurrection.Collection: Death
The two enemies of human happiness are pain and boredom.Collection: Happiness
The doctor sees all the weakness of mankind; the lawyer all the wickedness, the theologian all the stupidity.Collection: Medical
Hatred is an affair of the heart; contempt that of the head.Collection: Anger
Music is the melody whose text is the world.Collection: Music
Change alone is eternal, perpetual, immortal.Collection: Alone
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.Collection: Death
With people of limited ability modesty is merely honesty. But with those who possess great talent it is hypocrisy.Collection: Great
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.Collection: Truth
Because people have no thoughts to deal in, they deal cards, and try and win one another's money. Idiots!Collection: Money
A man can do what he wants, but not want what he wants.
The wise have always said the same things, and fools, who are the majority have always done just the opposite.
There is no doubt that life is given us, not to be enjoyed, but to be overcome; to be got over.
Wealth is like sea-water; the more we drink, the thirstier we become; and the same is true of fame.
Compassion is the basis of morality.
Wicked thoughts and worthless efforts gradually set their mark on the face, especially the eyes.
Opinion is like a pendulum and obeys the same law. If it goes past the centre of gravity on one side, it must go a like distance on the other; and it is only after a certain time that it finds the true point at which it can remain at rest.