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The Wisdom of Life by Arthur Schopenhauer

The Wisdom of Life by Arthur Schopenhauer

by Parker · 52 things on Twos

The Wisdom of Life by Arthur Schopenhauer summary
“We shall leave this world as foolish and as wicked as we found it on our arrival” - Voltaire
Humanity may be reduced to three distinct classes:
What a man is: personality; health, strength, beauty, temperament, moral character, intelligence, and education
What a man has: property and possessions of every kind
How a man stands in the estimation of others: the light in which his fellowmen regard him
“The happiness we receive from ourselves is greater than that which we obtain from our surroundings” - Metrodorus
The principal element in a mans well being is what he is made of, his inner constitution
The source of inward satisfaction or dissatisfaction results from the sum total of his sensations, desires, and thoughts; while his surroundings exert only a mediate or indirect influence upon him
The world in which a man lives shapes itself chiefly by the way in which he looks at it
Every man is pent up within the limits of his own consciousness
The objective half of life is reality in the hand of fate, the subjective half is ourselves
However much his external circumstances may alter; it is like a series of variations on a single theme. No one can get beyond his own individuality
The highest, most varied and lasting pleasures are those of the mind
Our happiness depends in a great degree upon what we are, not what we have, or our reputation
Our lot may improve; but we do not ask much of it if we are inwardly rich: on the other hand, a fool remains a fool, to his last hour, even though he were surrounded by houris in paradise
Houri: a beautiful young woman
The subjective element in life is incomparably more important for our happiness and pleasure than the objective
Hunger is the best sauce
Youth and age cannot live together
Health outweighs all other blessings so much that one may really say that a healthy beggar is happier than an ailing king
A quiet and cheerful temperament, happy in the enjoyment of a perfectly sound physique, an intellect clear, lively, penetrating and seeing things as they are, a moderate and gentle will, and therefore a good conscience—these privileges which no rank or wealth can make up for or replace
It is wiser to aim at the maintenance of our health and the cultivation of our faculties, than at the amassing of wealth
Beyond the satisfaction of some real and natural necessities, all that the possession of wealth can achieve has a very small influence upon our happiness; wealth rather disturbs it, because the preservation of property entails a great many unavoidable anxieties
The highest pleasures, those of intellect, are to him inaccessible, and he tries in vain to replace them by the fleeting pleasures of sense in which he indulged, lasting but a brief your and at tremendous cost
Nothing contributes so little to cheerfulness as riches, or so much, as health
To be healthy—avoid every kind of excess, all violent and unpleasant emotion, all mental overstrain, take daily exercise in the open air, cold baths and such like hygienic measures
Life is movement; it is its very essence
“Men are not influenced by things but by their thoughts about things.” - Epictetus
9/10th of our happiness depends upon health alone
With health, everything is a source of pleasure; without it, nothing else, whatever it may be, is enjoyable
Good health is by far the most important element in human happiness
The two foes of human happiness are pain and boredom. Life presents a more or less violent oscillation between the two
Needy surroundings and povery
The wise man will, above all, strive after freedom from pain and annoyance, quiet and leisure, consequently a tranquil, modest life, with as few encounters as may be; and so, after a little experience of his so-called fellow-men, he will elect to live in retirement, or even, if he is a man of great intellect, in solitude. For the more a man has in himself, the less he will want from other people,—the less, indeed, other people can be to him
The more a man finds his sources of pleasure in himself—the happier he will be
“To be happy means to be self-sufficient” - Aristotle
The man to whom nature and fate have granted the blessing of wisdom, will be most anxious and careful to keep open the fountains of happiness which he has in himself; and for this, independence and leisure are necessary. To obtain them, he will be willing to moderate his desires and harbour his resources; all the more because he is not, like others, restricted to the external world for his pleasures
“Happiness means mastery and successful activity in all your undertakings.” - Aristotle
“There are no real pleasures without real needs” - Voltaire
The life of the mind is not only a protection against boredom, it also wards off the pernicious effects of boredom; it keeps us from bad company, from many dangers, misfortunes, losses, snd extravagances which the man who places his happiness entirely in the objective world is sure to encounter
The ordinary man places his life’s happiness in things external to him, in property, rank, wife and children, friends, society, and the like, so that when he loses them or finds them disappointing, the foundation of his happiness is destroyed. In other words, his centre of gravity is not in himself; it is constantly changing its place, with every wish and whim
A man never feels the loss of things which it never occurs to him to ask for; he is just as happy without them; whilst another, who may have a hundred times as much, feels miserable because he has not got the one thing which he wants
To lay great value upon what other people say is to pay them too much honor
In all we do, almost the first thing we think about is: what will people say; and nearly half the troubles and bothers of life may be traced to our anxiety on this score, it is the anxiety which is at the bottom of all that feeling of self-importance, which is so often mortified because it is so very morbidly sensitive
Rude behavior is often passed over in silence because no one cares to risk his neck in correcting it
“Fame follows merit as surely as the body casts a shadow; sometimes falling in front, and sometimes behind.” - Seneca
The longer a mans fame is likely to last, the later it will be in coming; for all excellent products require time for their development
The general history of art and literature shows that the highest achievements of the human mind are, as a rule, not favorably received at first; but remain in obscurity until they win notice from intelligence of a higher order, by whose influence they are brought into a position which they then maintain, in virtue of the authority thus given them
Those who labour, not out of love for their subject, nor from the pleasure in pursuing it, but under the stimulus of ambition, rarely or never leave mankind a legacy of immortal works
Fame shuns those who seek it, and seeks those who shun it
It is not that a man is thought to be great by masses of incompetent and often infatuated people, but that he really is great, which should move us to envy his position; and his happiness lies, not in the fact that posterity will hear of him, but that he is the creator of thoughts worthy to help treasured up and studied for hundreds of years