182 quotes
Do not shorten the morning by getting up late, or waste it in unworthy occupations or in talk; look upon it as the quintessence of life, as to a certain extent sacred.
Parerga and Paralipomena (1851)
The animal lacks both anxiety and hope because its consciousness is restricted to what is clearly evident and thus to the present moment: the animal is the present incarnate.
Parerga and Paralipomena (1851)
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.
Parerga and Paralipomena (1851)
Hatred comes from the heart; contempt from the head; and neither feeling is quite within our control.
Parerga and Paralipomena (1851)
There is no more mistaken path to happiness than worldliness, revelry, high life.
Wealth is like sea-water; the more we drink, the thirstier we become.
Parerga and Paralipomena (1851)
In the sphere of thought, absurdity and perversity remain the masters of the world, and their dominion is suspended only for brief periods.
To the hope of immortality of the soul there is always added that of a “better world”; an indication that the present world is not worth much.
Money is human happiness in the abstract; and so the man who is no longer capable of enjoying such happiness in the concrete, sets his whole heart on money.
Parerga and Paralipomena (1851)
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.
The World as Will and Representation (1819)
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.
Parerga and Paralipomena (1851)
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.
Parerga and Paralipomena (1851)
Dissimulation is innate in woman, and almost as much a quality of the stupid as of the clever.
Parerga and Paralipomena (1851)
The heavy armor becomes the light dress of childhood; the pain is brief, the joy unending.
Parerga and Paralipomena (1851)
There are 80,000 prostitutes in London alone and what are they, if not bloody sacrifices on the altar of monogamy?
Parerga and Paralipomena (1851)
Vulgar people take huge delight in the faults and follies of great men.
Life is a business that does not cover the costs.
The World as Will and Representation (1819)
Intellect is invisible to the man who has none.
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.
Parerga and Paralipomena (1851)
All the cruelty and torment of which the world is full is in fact merely the necessary result of the totality of the forms under which the will to live is objectified.
Parerga and Paralipomena (1851)