Arthur Schopenhauer

“Politeness is to human nature what warmth is to wax.”

“Life is a business that does not cover the costs.”

“The safest way of not being very miserable is not to expect to be very happy.”

“Reading is merely a surrogate for thinking for yourself; it means letting someone else direct your thoughts.”

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

“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.”

“The two enemies of human happiness are pain and boredom.”

“Wealth is like sea-water; the more we drink, the thirstier we become; and the same is true of fame.”

“The cheapest sort of pride is national pride.”

“To live alone is the fate of all great souls.”

“It is a clear gain to sacrifice pleasure in order to avoid pain.”

“Every truth passes through three stages before it is recognized. In the first, it is ridiculed. In the second, it is violently opposed. In the third, it is accepted as self-evident.”

“Life swings like a pendulum backward and forward between pain and boredom.”

“Mostly it is loss which teaches us about the worth of things.”

“A high degree of intellect tends to make a man unsocial.”

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

“The person who writes for fools is always sure of a large audience.”

“Every man takes the limits of his own field of vision for the limits of the world.”

“Compassion is the basis of morality.”

“The world is my representation.”