We can come to look upon the deaths of our enemies with as much regret as we feel for those of our friends, namely, when we miss their existence as witnesses to our success.
Arthur SchopenhauerRead
The actual life of a thought lasts only until it reaches the point of speech...As soon as our thinking has found words it ceases to be sincere...When it begins to exist in others it ceases to live in us, just as the child severs itself from its mother when it enters into its own existence.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Thoughts lose their authenticity when spoken aloud, transforming into shared ideas.
This quote by Arthur Schopenhauer reflects the notion that once a thought is verbalized, it becomes estranged from its original intent and sincerity. Just as a child separates from its mother to gain independence, a thought's life is diminished once it transitions from the private realm of personal contemplation to the public domain of communication, thereby losing its genuine essence. It emphasizes the idea that verbal expression can dilute the purity of our inner thoughts.
Themes
ThoughtSpeechSincerityCommunicationPhilosophy
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about the nature of creativity, one might quote Schopenhauer to emphasize how the act of sharing ideas can dilute their original intent.
More from Arthur Schopenhauer
All quotes →To be shocked at how deeply rejection hurts is to ignore what acceptance involves. We must never allow our suffering to be compounded by suggestions that there is something odd in suffering so deeply. There would be something amiss if we didn't.
Arthur SchopenhauerRead
Almost all of our sorrows spring out of our relations with other people.
Arthur SchopenhauerRead
Life is full of troubles and vexations, that one must either rise above it by means of corrected thoughts, or leave it.
Arthur SchopenhauerRead
Our religions will never at any time take root; the ancient wisdom of the human race will not be supplanted by the events in Galilee. On the contrary, Indian wisdom flows back to Europe, and will produce a fundamental change in our knowledge and thought.
Arthur SchopenhauerRead
We will gradually become indifferent to what goes on in the minds of other people when we acquire a knowledge of the superficial nature of their thoughts, the narrowness of their views and of the number of their errors. Whoever attaches a lot of value to the opinions of others pays them too much honor.
Arthur SchopenhauerRead
Similar quotes
Inside him, twenty years dissolved and mixed into one complex, swirling whole. Everything that had accumulated over the years-- all he had seen, all the words he has spoken, all the values he had held-- all of it coalesced into one solid, thick pillar in his heart, the core of which was spinning like a potter's wheel. Wordlessly, Tengo observed the scene, as if watching the destruction and rebirth of a planet.
Haruki MurakamiRead
What we need to do is break the financial community's grip on society.
Nassim Nicholas TalebRead
Sports plays a societal role in engendering jingoist and chauvinist attitudes. They're designed to organize a community to be committed to their gladiators.
Noam ChomskyRead
We can no more justify using nonhumans as human resources than we can justify human slavery. Animal use and slavery have at least one important point in common: both institutions treat sentient beings exclusively as resources of others. That cannot be justified with respect to humans; it cannot be justified with respect to nonhumans—however “humanely” we treat them.
Gary L. FrancioneRead
Man is an imperceptible atom always trying to become one with God.
Henry AdamsRead
Freedom for the wolves has often meant death to the sheep.
Isaiah BerlinRead