Arthur Schopenhauer: Zitate auf Englisch (seite 5)

“there are very few who can think, but every man wants to have an opinion; and what remains but to take it ready-made from others, instead of forming opinions for himself?”

“Music is the melody whose text is the world.”

“Reading is thinking with someone else's head instead of ones own.”

“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.”

“To free a man from error is to give, not to take away. Knowledge that a thing is false is a truth. Error always does harm; sooner or later it will bring mischief to the man who harbors it.”

“If we suspect that a man is lying, we should pretend to believe him; for then he becomes bold and assured, lies more vigorously, and is unmasked.”

“Rascals are always sociable — more’s the pity! and the chief sign that a man has any nobility in his character is the little pleasure he takes in others’ company.”

“What a man is contributes much more to his happiness than what he has or how he is regarded by others.”

“There is some wisdom in taking a gloomy view, in looking upon the world as a kind of Hell, and in confining one's efforts to securing a little room that shall not be exposed to the fire.”

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

“Men are the devils of the earth, and the animals are its tormented souls.”

“To find out your real opinion of someone, judge the impression you have when you first see a letter from them.”

“That I could clamber to the frozen moon. And draw the ladder after me.”

“After your death, you will be what you were before your birth.”

“Whatever torch we kindle, and whatever space it may illuminate, our horizon will always remain encircled by the depth of night.”

“Life is short and truth works far and lives long: let us speak the truth.”

“Truth is no harlot who throws her arms round the neck of him who does not desire her; on the contrary, she is so coy a beauty that even the man who sacrifices everything to her can still not be certain of her favors.”

“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.”

“Men of learning are those who have read the contents of books. Thinkers, geniuses, and those who have enlightened the world and furthered the race of men, are those who have made direct use of the book of the world.”