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
It would be better if there were nothing. Since there is more pain than pleasure on earth, every satisfaction is only transitory, creating new desires and new distresses, and the agony of the devoured animal is always far greater than the pleasure of the devourer
Interpretation
What this quote means
Schopenhauer suggests that existence is filled with more suffering than joy, making life seem burdensome rather than fulfilling.
In this quote, Arthur Schopenhauer expresses a deep pessimism about the nature of existence, arguing that life is primarily characterized by pain and desire. He posits that any pleasure we experience is fleeting and often gives way to new desires, which in turn create further distress. Schopenhauer emphasizes the idea that the suffering endured by living beings far outweighs the temporary joys, suggesting that it may be better if existence itself did not occur.
Themes
SufferingPainPleasureExistenceDesirePhilosophy
In practice
Example use cases
In a philosophical discussion about the nature of reality.
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
When people learn no tools of judgment and merely follow their hopes, the seeds of political manipulation are sown.
Stephen Jay GouldRead
I am a lover of truth, a worshipper of freedom, a celebrant at the altar of language and purity and tolerance.
Stephen FryRead
Punctuality is a quality the need of which is bound up with social co-operation. It has nothing to do with the relation of the soul to God, or with mystic insight, or with any of the matters with which the more elevated and spiritual moralists are concerned.
Bertrand RussellRead
I see in the rising crescendo of ethnic tensions, civilization clashes and the use of religious justification for acts of terror, a clear and present danger to humanity.
Jonathan SacksRead
As someone who lived under communism for most of my life I feel obliged to say that the biggest threat to freedom, democracy, the market economy and prosperity at the beginning of the 21st century is not communism or its various softer variants. Communism was replaced by the threat of ambitious environmentalism.
Vaclav KlausRead
It is better to be beautiful than to be good. But... it is better to be good than to be ugly.
Oscar WildeRead