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The Wisdom of Life

Arthur Schopenhauer

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1. "THE ESSAYS OF ARTHUR SCHOPENHAUER: THE WISDOM OF LIFE", para. 1. THE ESSAYS OF ARTHUR SCHOPENHAUER: THE WISDOM OF LIFE
2. "By Arthur Schopenhauer", para. 1. By Arthur Schopenhauer
3. "Translated By T. Bailey Saunders", para. 1. Translated By T. Bailey Saunders CONTENTS INTRODUCTION. THE WISDOM OF LIFE. CHAPTER I
4. "INTRODUCTION.", para. 1. INTRODUCTION. In these pages I shall speak of The Wisdom of Life in the common meanin
5. "INTRODUCTION.", para. 4. The only book composed, as far as I remember, with a like purpose to that which anima
6. "THE WISDOM OF LIFE.", para. 1. THE WISDOM OF LIFE.
7. "CHAPTER I. — DIVISION OF THE SUBJECT.", para. 1. CHAPTER I. — DIVISION OF THE SUBJECT. Aristotle{1} divides the blessings of life into
8. "CHAPTER I. — DIVISION OF THE SUBJECT.", para. 7. The differences which come under the first head are those which Nature herself has se
9. "CHAPTER I. — DIVISION OF THE SUBJECT.", para. 7. full of meaning. On hearing of the interesting events which have happened in the cour
10. "CHAPTER I. — DIVISION OF THE SUBJECT.", para. 8. {Footnote 1: Cf. Clemens Alex. Strom. II., 21.} In the same way, a person of melancho
11. "CHAPTER I. — DIVISION OF THE SUBJECT.", para. 9. causes, they are in their essential nature much the same in all their forms, with deg
12. "CHAPTER I. — DIVISION OF THE SUBJECT.", para. 10. Hence the life of every man is stamped with the same character throughout, however mu
13. "CHAPTER I. — DIVISION OF THE SUBJECT.", para. 10. adise. This is why Goethe, in the West-östliclien Divan, says that every man, whether
14. "CHAPTER I. — DIVISION OF THE SUBJECT.", para. 12. and when Socrates saw various articles of luxury spread out for sale, he exclaimed: H
15. "CHAPTER I. — DIVISION OF THE SUBJECT.", para. 14. The only thing that stands in our power to achieve, is to make the most advantageous
16. "CHAPTER I. — DIVISION OF THE SUBJECT.", para. 16. Since the blessings described under the first head decidedly outweigh those contained
17. "CHAPTER I. — DIVISION OF THE SUBJECT.", para. 16. eaves to his heir, either to make it still larger, or to squander it in extravagance.
18. "CHAPTER I. — DIVISION OF THE SUBJECT.", para. 18. I need not insist upon the importance of the other two kinds of blessings which make
19. "CHAPTER II. — PERSONALITY, OR WHAT A MAN IS.", para. 1. CHAPTER II. — PERSONALITY, OR WHAT A MAN IS. We have already seen, in general, that w
20. "CHAPTER II. — PERSONALITY, OR WHAT A MAN IS.", para. 4. {Footnote 1: Eth. Eud., vii. 2. 37:} And just for the same reason we can more easily
21. "CHAPTER II. — PERSONALITY, OR WHAT A MAN IS.", para. 6. And of all these, the one which makes us the most directly happy is a genial flow of
22. "CHAPTER II. — PERSONALITY, OR WHAT A MAN IS.", para. 7. Now it is certain that nothing contributes so little to cheerfulness as riches, or so
23. "CHAPTER II. — PERSONALITY, OR WHAT A MAN IS.", para. 7. s ceaseless internal motion requires some external counterpart, and the want of it pr
24. "CHAPTER II. — PERSONALITY, OR WHAT A MAN IS.", para. 9. But however much health may contribute to that flow of good spirits which is so essen
25. "CHAPTER II. — PERSONALITY, OR WHAT A MAN IS.", para. 11. {Footnote 2: Tusc. i., 33.} This is the difference which Plato draws between {Greek:
26. "CHAPTER II. — PERSONALITY, OR WHAT A MAN IS.", para. 12. fort produces a weariness of life. So arises an inclination to suicide, which even th
27. "CHAPTER II. — PERSONALITY, OR WHAT A MAN IS.", para. 13. {Footnote 1: For a detailed description of this condition of mind Cf Esquirol, Des ma
28. "CHAPTER II. — PERSONALITY, OR WHAT A MAN IS.", para. 15. {Footnote 1: Iliad 3, 65.} The most general survey shows us that the two foes of huma
29. "CHAPTER II. — PERSONALITY, OR WHAT A MAN IS.", para. 16. er of people who gossip on the doorstep or gape out of the window. It is mainly becau
30. "CHAPTER II. — PERSONALITY, OR WHAT A MAN IS.", para. 18. But, on the other hand, this high degree of intelligence is rooted in a high degree o
31. "CHAPTER II. — PERSONALITY, OR WHAT A MAN IS.", para. 19. But the individual who stands at the other end of the scale is no sooner free from th
32. "CHAPTER II. — PERSONALITY, OR WHAT A MAN IS.", para. 21. {Footnote 2: Le Commerce, Oct. 19th, 1837.} The brain may be regarded as a kind of pa
33. "CHAPTER II. — PERSONALITY, OR WHAT A MAN IS.", para. 22. igar may be a welcome substitute for exercising his brains. Hence, in all countries t
34. "CHAPTER II. — PERSONALITY, OR WHAT A MAN IS.", para. 23. {Footnote 1: Translator's Note.—Card-playing to this extent is now, no doubt, a thing
35. "CHAPTER II. — PERSONALITY, OR WHAT A MAN IS.", para. 25. Himself is the source of the best and most a man can be or achieve. The more this is
36. "CHAPTER II. — PERSONALITY, OR WHAT A MAN IS.", para. 26. {Footnote 1: Eth. Eud, vii 2} There was a great wisdom in that remark which Queen Chr
37. "CHAPTER II. — PERSONALITY, OR WHAT A MAN IS.", para. 32. The truth which I am insisting upon here, the truth, namely, that the chief source of
38. "CHAPTER II. — PERSONALITY, OR WHAT A MAN IS.", para. 35. {Footnote 1: III 1073.} In their youth, such people must have had a superfluity of mu
39. "CHAPTER II. — PERSONALITY, OR WHAT A MAN IS.", para. 37. First of all come the pleasures of vital energy, of food, drink, digestion, rest and
40. "CHAPTER II. — PERSONALITY, OR WHAT A MAN IS.", para. 38. {Footnote 1: Nature exhibits a continual progress, starting from the mechanical and c
41. "CHAPTER II. — PERSONALITY, OR WHAT A MAN IS.", para. 38. ll in all. Further, intellectual pleasures are accessible entirely and only through t
42. "CHAPTER II. — PERSONALITY, OR WHAT A MAN IS.", para. 40. {Footnote 1: Vulgarity is, at bottom, the kind of consciousness in which the will com
43. "CHAPTER II. — PERSONALITY, OR WHAT A MAN IS.", para. 42. {Footnote 1: Odyssey IV., 805.} Look on these two pictures—the life of the masses, on
44. "CHAPTER II. — PERSONALITY, OR WHAT A MAN IS.", para. 43. o is privileged in this respect leads two lives, a personal and an intellectual life;
45. "CHAPTER II. — PERSONALITY, OR WHAT A MAN IS.", para. 44. The ordinary life of every day, so far as it is not moved by passion, is tedious and
46. "CHAPTER II. — PERSONALITY, OR WHAT A MAN IS.", para. 45. The ordinary man places his life's happiness in things external to him, in property,
47. "CHAPTER II. — PERSONALITY, OR WHAT A MAN IS.", para. 45. rything else. It is only the highest intellectual power, what we call genius, that at
48. "CHAPTER II. — PERSONALITY, OR WHAT A MAN IS.", para. 48. {Footnote 1: Epigrammata, 12.} the wealth of the soul is the only true wealth, for wi
49. "CHAPTER II. — PERSONALITY, OR WHAT A MAN IS.", para. 51. {Footnote 2: iv. 11.} But to be in possession of undisturbed leisure, is far from bei
50. "CHAPTER II. — PERSONALITY, OR WHAT A MAN IS.", para. 53. But there is something to be said in opposition to this view. Great intellectual gift
51. "CHAPTER II. — PERSONALITY, OR WHAT A MAN IS.", para. 62. {Footnote 4: Ecclesiastes, i. 18.} I may remark, however, that a man who has no menta
52. "CHAPTER II. — PERSONALITY, OR WHAT A MAN IS.", para. 63. is to procure what will contribute to his bodily welfare, and he is indeed in a happy
53. "CHAPTER II. — PERSONALITY, OR WHAT A MAN IS.", para. 64. From the essential nature of the philistine it follows, secondly, in regard to others
54. "CHAPTER III. — PROPERTY, OR WHAT A MAN HAS.", para. 1. CHAPTER III. — PROPERTY, OR WHAT A MAN HAS. Epicurus divides the needs of mankind int
55. "CHAPTER III. — PROPERTY, OR WHAT A MAN HAS.", para. 3. {Footnote 1: Cf. Diogenes Laertius, Bk. x., ch. xxvii., pp. 127 and 149; also Cicero
56. "CHAPTER III. — PROPERTY, OR WHAT A MAN HAS.", para. 4. we have done so, the pain becomes less and less, and is felt no more; like an old wou
57. "CHAPTER III. — PROPERTY, OR WHAT A MAN HAS.", para. 6. {Footnote 1: xviii., 130-7.} When we consider how full of needs the human race is, ho
58. "CHAPTER III. — PROPERTY, OR WHAT A MAN HAS.", para. 8. If a man has an independent fortune, he should regard it as a bulwark against the man
59. "CHAPTER III. — PROPERTY, OR WHAT A MAN HAS.", para. 8. ke their capital secure and not encroach upon it; nay, if they can, they put by at le
60. "CHAPTER III. — PROPERTY, OR WHAT A MAN HAS.", para. 10. {Footnote 1: Part III., Act 1., Sc. 4.} But it should be said that people of this kin
61. "CHAPTER III. — PROPERTY, OR WHAT A MAN HAS.", para. 12. {Footnote 1: Boswell's Life of Johnson: ann: 1776, aetat: 67.} I do not by any means
62. "CHAPTER III. — PROPERTY, OR WHAT A MAN HAS.", para. 13. s of any branch of knowledge so that he may at least do what he can towards promoting
63. "CHAPTER III. — PROPERTY, OR WHAT A MAN HAS.", para. 14. It is quite another matter if one's object is success in political life, where favor,
64. "CHAPTER III. — PROPERTY, OR WHAT A MAN HAS.", para. 15. —it is no use to complain of low aims; for, whatever people may say, they rule the wo
65. "CHAPTER IV. — POSITION, OR A MAN'S PLACE IN THE ESTIMATION O", para. 1. CHAPTER IV. — POSITION, OR A MAN'S PLACE IN THE ESTIMATION OF OTHERS.
66. "Section 1.—Reputation.", para. 1. Section 1.—Reputation. By a peculiar weakness of human nature, people generally think
67. "Section 1.—Reputation.", para. 3. If the feeling of honor rests upon this peculiarity of human nature, it may have a ve
68. "Section 1.—Reputation.", para. 4. {Footnote 1: Horace, Epist: II., 1, 180.} Therefore it will very much conduce to our
69. "Section 1.—Reputation.", para. 6. {Footnote 1: Let me remark that people in the highest positions in life, with all the
70. "Section 1.—Reputation.", para. 7. At all events, a man is in a very bad way, who finds no source of happiness in the fi
71. "Section 1.—Reputation.", para. 7. thousand toils and dangers in the process, has, in the end, no further object than to
72. "Section 1.—Reputation.", para. 7. wn consciousness, which is the thing most immediately and directly present to them. T
73. "Section 1.—Reputation.", para. 8. {Footnote 1: Scire tuum nihil est nisi te scire hoc sciat alter, (Persins i, 27)—know
74. "Section 1.—Reputation.", para. 10. By way of specially illustrating this perverse and exuberant respect for other people
75. "Section 1.—Reputation.", para. 11. This is an admirable example of the way in which a man, with death in the most dreadf
76. "Section 1.—Reputation.", para. 13. Now, it is obvious that happiness, which consists for the most part in peace of mind
77. "Section 1.—Reputation.", para. 13. t of others, and pay everlasting regard to their casual opinions; in a word, we are a
78. "Section 2.—Pride.", para. 1. Section 2.—Pride. The folly of our nature which we are discussing puts forth three sh
79. "Section 2.—Pride.", para. 4. It is quite true that pride is something which is generally found fault with, and cri
80. "Section 2.—Pride.", para. 6. The cheapest sort of pride is national pride; for if a man is proud of his own nation
81. "Section 2.—Pride.", para. 9. However that may be, individuality is a far more important thing than nationality, an
82. "Section 3.—Rank.", para. 1. Section 3.—Rank. Let us take rank first, as it may be dismissed in a few words, altho
83. "Section 4.—Honor.", para. 1. Section 4.—Honor. Honor is a much larger question than rank, and more difficult to di
84. "Section 4.—Honor.", para. 5. But a man soon discovers that everything depends upon his being useful, not in his ow
85. "Section 4.—Honor.", para. 7. Civic honor has the widest sphere of all. It consists in the assumption that we shall
86. "Section 4.—Honor.", para. 9. Civic honor draws its existence and name from the middle classes; but it applies equa
87. "Section 4.—Honor.", para. 12. The reason why respect is paid to age is that old people have necessarily shown in th
88. "Section 4.—Honor.", para. 13. Honor has only an indirect value. For, as I explained at the beginning of this chapte
89. "Section 4.—Honor.", para. 15. {Footnote 2: Disc: iii. 17.} Official honor is the general opinion of other people th
90. "Section 4.—Honor.", para. 18. Subordinate to the honor of official personages comes that of those who serve the Sta
91. "Section 4.—Honor.", para. 20. Female honor is the general opinion in regard to a girl that she is pure, and in rega
92. "Section 4.—Honor.", para. 20. terms upon which the man capitulated; and as her conduct is such as to frighten other
93. "Section 4.—Honor.", para. 22. {Footnote 1: Heroditus, i. 199.} There are also of course certain circumstances in ci
94. "Section 4.—Honor.", para. 23. the mother's suicide. No doubt a girl who contravenes the code commits a breach of fa
95. "Section 4.—Honor.", para. 25. The kind of honor which I have been discussing hitherto has always existed in its var
96. "Section 4.—Honor.", para. 26. (1.) To begin with, honor of this sort consists, not in other people's opinion of wha
97. "Section 4.—Honor.", para. 27. (2.) In the second place, this sort of honor rests, not on what a man does, but on wh
98. "Section 4.—Honor.", para. 28. {Footnote 1: De Constantia, 11.} It is obvious that people of this worthless descript
99. "Section 4.—Honor.", para. 30. This wise proceeding may, I think, be traced back to the fact that in the Middle Age,
100. "Section 4.—Honor.", para. 31. {Footnote 1: See C.G. von Waehter's Beiträge zur deutschen Geschichte, especially the