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Studies in Pessimism

Arthur Schopenhauer

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1. "THE ESSAYS OF ARTHUR SCHOPENHAUER: STUDIES IN PESSIMISM", para. 1. THE ESSAYS OF ARTHUR SCHOPENHAUER: STUDIES IN PESSIMISM
2. "By Arthur Schopenhauer", para. 1. By Arthur Schopenhauer
3. "Translated By T. Bailey Saunders", para. 1. Translated By T. Bailey Saunders CONTENTS NOTE. ON THE SUFFERINGS OF THE WORLD. THE V
4. "NOTE.", para. 1. NOTE. The Essays here presented form a further selection from Schopenhauer's Parerga,
5. "T.B.S.", para. 1. T.B.S.
6. "ON THE SUFFERINGS OF THE WORLD.", para. 1. ON THE SUFFERINGS OF THE WORLD. Unless suffering is the direct and immediate object o
7. "ON THE SUFFERINGS OF THE WORLD.", para. 5. This explains the fact that we generally find pleasure to be not nearly so pleasant a
8. "ON THE SUFFERINGS OF THE WORLD.", para. 11. Certain it is that work, worry, labor and trouble, form the lot of almost all men the
9. "ON THE SUFFERINGS OF THE WORLD.", para. 15. If two men who were friends in their youth meet again when they are old, after being
10. "ON THE SUFFERINGS OF THE WORLD.", para. 20. I shall be told, I suppose, that my philosophy is comfortless—because I speak the tru
11. "ON THE SUFFERINGS OF THE WORLD.", para. 22. However varied the forms that human happiness and misery may take, leading a man to s
12. "ON THE SUFFERINGS OF THE WORLD.", para. 23. The chief source of all this passion is that thought for what is absent and future, w
13. "ON THE SUFFERINGS OF THE WORLD.", para. 25. And above and beyond all this, there is a separate and peculiar source of pleasure, a
14. "ON THE SUFFERINGS OF THE WORLD.", para. 25. f human life. Finally, I may mention that as regards the sexual relation, a man is co
15. "ON THE SUFFERINGS OF THE WORLD.", para. 28. But all this contributes to increase the measures of suffering in human life out of a
16. "ON THE SUFFERINGS OF THE WORLD.", para. 29. The brute is much more content with mere existence than man; the plant is wholly so;
17. "ON THE SUFFERINGS OF THE WORLD.", para. 30. Following upon this, there is one respect in which brutes show real wisdom when compa
18. "ON THE SUFFERINGS OF THE WORLD.", para. 31. It is just this characteristic way in which the brute gives itself up entirely to the
19. "ON THE SUFFERINGS OF THE WORLD.", para. 32. We shall see later that by taking a very high standpoint it is possible to justify th
20. "ON THE SUFFERINGS OF THE WORLD.", para. 33. 3 (return) [ Cf. Welt als Wille und Vorstellung, vol. ii. p. 404.] Brahma is said to
21. "ON THE SUFFERINGS OF THE WORLD.", para. 35. 4 (return) [ See Parerga, vol. i. pp. 139 et seq.] Even though Leibnitz' contention,
22. "ON THE SUFFERINGS OF THE WORLD.", para. 38. There is nothing more certain than the general truth that it is the grievous sin of t
23. "ON THE SUFFERINGS OF THE WORLD.", para. 41. Allied with this is the contrast between the Greek and the Christian idea of death. I
24. "ON THE SUFFERINGS OF THE WORLD.", para. 42. The contrast which the New Testament presents when compared with the Old, according t
25. "ON THE SUFFERINGS OF THE WORLD.", para. 43. 6 (return) [ Cf. Romans vii; Galatians ii, iii.] If you want a safe compass to guide
26. "ON THE SUFFERINGS OF THE WORLD.", para. 48. 10 (return) [De admirandis naturae arcanis; dial L. p. 35.] If you accustom yourself
27. "ON THE SUFFERINGS OF THE WORLD.", para. 51. Pardon's the word to all! 11 Whatever folly men commit, be their shortcomings or thei
28. "THE VANITY OF EXISTENCE.", para. 1. THE VANITY OF EXISTENCE. This vanity finds expression in the whole way in which thing
29. "THE VANITY OF EXISTENCE.", para. 5. Of every event in our life we can say only for one moment that it is; for ever after,
30. "THE VANITY OF EXISTENCE.", para. 8. In a world where all is unstable, and nought can endure, but is swept onwards at once
31. "THE VANITY OF EXISTENCE.", para. 10. On looking a little closer, we find that inorganic matter presents a constant conflic
32. "THE VANITY OF EXISTENCE.", para. 12. Then again, how insatiable a creature is man! Every satisfaction he attains lays the
33. "THE VANITY OF EXISTENCE.", para. 14. Human life must be some kind of mistake. The truth of this will be sufficiently obvio
34. "THE VANITY OF EXISTENCE.", para. 15. That this most perfect manifestation of the will to live, the human organism, with th
35. "ON SUICIDE.", para. 1. ON SUICIDE. As far as I know, none but the votaries of monotheistic, that is to say,
36. "ON SUICIDE.", para. 3. Suicide, as I have said, is actually accounted a crime; and a crime which, especially
37. "ON SUICIDE.", para. 3. r words of abuse. If the criminal law forbids suicide, that is not an argument valid
38. "ON SUICIDE.", para. 4. The ancients, moreover, were very far from regarding the matter in that light. Pliny
39. "ON SUICIDE.", para. 4. doos look upon suicide as a religious act, especially when it takes the form of self-
40. "ON SUICIDE.", para. 12. The reasons advanced against suicide by the clergy of monotheistic, that is to say, J
41. "ON SUICIDE.", para. 16. The inmost kernel of Christianity is the truth that suffering—the Cross—is the real e
42. "ON SUICIDE.", para. 18. It will generally be found that, as soon as the terrors of life reach the point at wh
43. "ON SUICIDE.", para. 20. When, in some dreadful and ghastly dream, we reach the moment of greatest horror, it
44. "IMMORTALITY:22 A DIALOGUE.", para. 1. IMMORTALITY:22 A DIALOGUE. 22 (return) [ Translator's Note.—The word immortality—Unst
45. "THRASYMACHOS—PHILALETHES.", para. 1. THRASYMACHOS—PHILALETHES. Thrasymachos. Tell me now, in one word, what shall I be aft
46. "THRASYMACHOS—PHILALETHES.", para. 9. Philalethes. Transcendental knowledge is knowledge which passes beyond the bounds of
47. "THRASYMACHOS—PHILALETHES.", para. 12. Thrasymachos. I shall have no objection to that. Philalethes. But remember, if people
48. "THRASYMACHOS—PHILALETHES.", para. 18. Thrasymachos. Don't you see that my individuality, be it what it may, is my very self
49. "THRASYMACHOS—PHILALETHES.", para. 19. I want to exist, I, I. That's the main thing. I don't care about an existence which h
50. "THRASYMACHOS—PHILALETHES.", para. 20. ain his own existence; and if this were not so, there would be no surety for the pres
51. "FURTHER PSYCHOLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS.", para. 1. FURTHER PSYCHOLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS. There is an unconscious propriety in the way in w
52. "FURTHER PSYCHOLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS.", para. 5. Hatred and contempt are diametrically opposed and mutually exclusive. There are even
53. "FURTHER PSYCHOLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS.", para. 8. Hypochondria shows itself in a perpetual hunting after things that vex and annoy, and
54. "FURTHER PSYCHOLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS.", para. 12. In such cases there are really two different motives at work in us; the stronger but
55. "FURTHER PSYCHOLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS.", para. 16. What value can a creature have that is not a whit different from millions of its kind
56. "FURTHER PSYCHOLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS.", para. 21. Will, as the thing-in-itself, is the foundation of all being; it is part and parcel o
57. "FURTHER PSYCHOLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS.", para. 22. In giving way to emotion of this violent kind, the greatest genius puts himself on a
58. "FURTHER PSYCHOLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS.", para. 23. And even in the drama, which is the peculiar province of the passions and emotions, i
59. "FURTHER PSYCHOLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS.", para. 25. Every man takes the limits of his own field of vision for the limits of the world. Th
60. "FURTHER PSYCHOLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS.", para. 31. Men of very great capacity, will as a rule, find the company of very stupid people pr
61. "FURTHER PSYCHOLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS.", para. 37. A man may call to mind the face of his friend, but not his own. Here, then, is an ini
62. "FURTHER PSYCHOLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS.", para. 39. 24 (return) [ Cf. Grundprobleme der Ethik, p. 275.] According as a man's mental energ
63. "FURTHER PSYCHOLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS.", para. 41. A man is great or small according as he leans to the one or the other of these views
64. "FURTHER PSYCHOLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS.", para. 46. In all that we do, we wish, more or less, to come to the end; we are impatient to fin
65. "FURTHER PSYCHOLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS.", para. 49. I am not speaking here of savages whose life is often only one degree above that of t
66. "FURTHER PSYCHOLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS.", para. 50. Such men think only just so much as is necessary to carry out their will for the mome
67. "FURTHER PSYCHOLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS.", para. 53. Then, finally, look at the poet or the philosopher, in whom reflection has reached su
68. "FURTHER PSYCHOLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS.", para. 56. Noblemen and gentlemen are trained to hold nothing sacred but their word of honor—to
69. "FURTHER PSYCHOLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS.", para. 59. Imagination is strong in a man when that particular function of the brain which enabl
70. "FURTHER PSYCHOLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS.", para. 62. By a process of contradiction, distance in space makes things look small, and therefo
71. "FURTHER PSYCHOLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS.", para. 64. Joy and sorrow are not ideas of the mind, but affections of the will, and so they do
72. "FURTHER PSYCHOLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS.", para. 68. There are moments in life when our senses obtain a higher and rarer degree of clearne
73. "FURTHER PSYCHOLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS.", para. 71. 26 (return) [ Parerga vol. ii, § 311.] It must also be reckoned among the peculiar at
74. "FURTHER PSYCHOLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS.", para. 76. 27 (return) [ Characters, c. 27.] Natural gesticulation, such as commonly accompanies
75. "FURTHER PSYCHOLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS.", para. 79. In a conversation, the gesture depends upon the form in which the subject-matter is c
76. "FURTHER PSYCHOLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS.", para. 81. As I have said, the most interesting and amusing part of the matter is the complete i
77. "ON EDUCATION.", para. 1. ON EDUCATION. The human intellect is said to be so constituted that general ideas ari
78. "ON EDUCATION.", para. 4. This explains why it so frequently happens that, after a long course of learning and
79. "ON EDUCATION.", para. 5. To acquire a knowledge of the world might be defined as the aim of all education; and
80. "ON EDUCATION.", para. 6. It follows that an attempt should be made to find out the strictly natural course of
81. "ON EDUCATION.", para. 8. A man sees a great many things when he looks at the world for himself, and he sees th
82. "ON EDUCATION.", para. 9. Instead of that method of instruction, care should be taken to educate children on th
83. "ON EDUCATION.", para. 10. And, in general, children should not form their notions of what life is like from the
84. "ON EDUCATION.", para. 11. 28 (return) [ vi. 7.] No child under the age of fifteen should receive instruction in
85. "ON EDUCATION.", para. 13. On the other hand, the memory should be specially taxed in youth, since it is then th
86. "ON EDUCATION.", para. 14. But the years of youth allotted to a man are short, and memory is, in general, bound
87. "ON EDUCATION.", para. 15. A man's knowledge may be said to be mature, in other words, it has reached the most c
88. "ON EDUCATION.", para. 16. For the practical man the most needful thing is to acquire an accurate and profound k
89. "ON EDUCATION.", para. 17. The study is difficult enough in itself; but the difficulty is doubled by novels, whi
90. "OF WOMEN.", para. 1. OF WOMEN. Schiller's poem in honor of women, Würde der Frauen, is the result of much
91. "OF WOMEN.", para. 6. With young girls Nature seems to have had in view what, in the language of the drama,
92. "OF WOMEN.", para. 8. The nobler and more perfect a thing is, the later and slower it is in arriving at mat
93. "OF WOMEN.", para. 9. However many disadvantages all this may involve, there is at least this to be said in
94. "OF WOMEN.", para. 12. The weakness of their reasoning faculty also explains why it is that women show more
95. "OF WOMEN.", para. 14. Hence, it will be found that the fundamental fault of the female character is that it
96. "OF WOMEN.", para. 15. Nature has appointed that the propagation of the species shall be the business of men
97. "OF WOMEN.", para. 16. 30 (return) [ A more detailed discussion of the matter in question may be found in my
98. "OF WOMEN.", para. 18. The natural feeling between men is mere indifference, but between women it is actual
99. "OF WOMEN.", para. 19. It is only the man whose intellect is clouded by his sexual impulses that could give
100. "OF WOMEN.", para. 20. 31 (return) [ Lettre à d'Alembert, Note xx.] No one who sees at all below the surface