Compassion is the basis of morality.

Arthur Schopenhauer

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.

Arthur Schopenhauer

Politeness is to human nature what warmth is to wax.

Arthur Schopenhauer

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

Arthur Schopenhauer

Music is the melody whose text is the world.

Arthur Schopenhauer

The alchemists in their search for gold discovered many other things of greater value.

Arthur Schopenhauer

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.

Arthur Schopenhauer

After your death you will be what you were before your birth.

Arthur Schopenhauer

He who does not enjoy solitude will not love freedom.

Arthur Schopenhauer

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

Arthur Schopenhauer

It’s the niceties that make the difference fate gives us the hand, and we play the cards.

Arthur Schopenhauer

Suffering by nature or chance never seems so painful as suffering inflicted on us by the arbitrary will of another.

Arthur Schopenhauer

The more unintelligent a man is, the less mysterious existence seems to him.

Arthur Schopenhauer

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

Arthur Schopenhauer

A sense of humour is the only divine quality of man.

Arthur Schopenhauer

It is with trifles and when he is off guard that a man best reveals his character.

Arthur Schopenhauer

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.

Arthur Schopenhauer

There is no doubt that life is given us, not to be enjoyed, but to be overcome-to be got over.

Arthur Schopenhauer

In early youth, as we contemplate our coming life, we are like children in a theatre before the curtain is raised, sitting there in high spirits and eagerly waiting for the play to begin.

Arthur Schopenhauer

The greatest of follies is to sacrifice health for any other kind of happiness.

Arthur Schopenhauer

A man can do what he wants, but not want what he wants.

Arthur Schopenhauer

It is difficult to keep quiet if you have nothing to do.

Arthur Schopenhauer

There is something in us that is wiser than our head.

Arthur Schopenhauer

There is no opinion, however absurd, which men will not readily embrace as soon as they can be brought to the conviction that it is generally adopted.

Arthur Schopenhauer