Arthur Schopenhauer Life Quotations

Our life is a loan received from death with sleep as the daily interest on this loan.

Human life, like all inferior goods, is covered on the outside with a false glitter; what suffers always conceals itself.

...nothing at all rides on the life or death of the individual.

The truth can wait, for it lives a long life.

Human life must be some form of mistake.

Consciousness is the mere surface of our minds, of which, as of the earth, we do not know the inside, but only the crust.

The scenes of our life are like pictures done in rough mosaic. Looked at close, they produce no effect. There is nothing beautiful to be found in them, unless you stand some distance off.

Life is a task to be done. It is a fine thing to say defunctus est; it means that the man has done his task.

A good supply of resignation is of the first importance in providing for the journey of life.

Life is neither to be wept over nor to be laughed at but to be understood.

Life is a language in which certain truths are conveyed to us; if we could learn them in some other way, we should not live.

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

The tallest oak tree once was an acorn that any pig could have swallowed.

A man must have grown old and lived long in order to see how short life is.

A happy life is impos­si­ble; the best that a man can attain is a heroic life.

Do not shorten the morning by getting up late; look upon it as the quintessence of life, as to a certain extent sacred.

The progress of life shows a man the stuff of which he is made.

It is only in the microscope that our life looks so big. It is an indivisible point, drawn out and magnified by the powerful lenses of Time and Space.

One can never read too little of bad, or too much of good books: bad books are intellectual poison; they destroy the mind. In order to read what is good one must make it a condition never to read what is bad; for life is short, and both time and strength limited.

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

If a man wants to read good books, he must make a point of avoiding bad ones; for life is short, and time and energy limited.

Life is short and truth works far and lives long: let us speak the truth.

A sense of humour is the only divine quality of man

Will power is to the mind like a strong blind man who carries on his shoulders a lame man who can see.

Each day is a little life: every waking and rising a little birth, every fresh morning a little youth, every going to rest and sleep a little death.

Life is a constant process of dying.

Life is full of troubles and vexations, that one must either rise above it by means of corrected thoughts, or leave it.

Our first ideas of life are generally taken from fiction rather than fact.

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

Life is a business that does not cover the costs.

Life is a ticklish business; I have resolved to spend it in reflecting upon it