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Nietzsche’s message to us was to live life in such a way that we would be willing to repeat the same life eternally. He continued flipping the pages and stopped at two passages highlighted heavily in neon pink: “Consummate your life.” “Die at the right time.”
awe.
I agree I need to work on social skills. A little friendliness and warmth, Schopenhauer said, makes it possible to manipulate people just as we need to warm wax if we wish to work it.”
Really true
although, as Schopenhauer points out, there is always pleasure in learning that others suffer more than you.”
Keep it in mind
Socrates said it most clearly, ‘to learn to live well, one must first learn to die well.’ Or Seneca, ‘No man enjoys the true taste of life but he who is willing and ready to quit it.’”
Statements on death
The greatest wisdom is to make the enjoyment of the present the supreme object of life because that is the only reality, all else being the play of thought.
Keep that in mind
Schopenhauer felt this was the universal human condition—wanting, momentary satiation, boredom, further wanting.
Like with sex
When I was young, I always regarded the present as a prelude to something better that was going to occur.
That s what we all do
“Please note that every feature on Ganesha has a serious meaning, a life instruction. Consider the large elephant head: it tells us to think big. And the large ears? To listen more. The small eyes remind us to focus and to concentrate and the small mouth to talk less. And I do not forget Ganesha’s instruction—even at this moment as I talk to you I remember his counsel and I warn myself not to talk too much. You must help by telling me when I tell you more than you wish to know.”
the elephant meaning
Great sufferings render lesser ones quite incapable of being felt, and conversely, in the absence of great sufferings even the smallest vexations and annoyances torment us.
about suffering
I haven’t had any practice at this. No one practices endings. They only happen once. No textbooks are written about this situation—so everything is improvisation.
so true
“Love is in the one who loves not in the one who is loved
Statement on love
I maintain silence about my secret it is my prisoner; if I let it slip from my tongue, I am its prisoner. On the tree of silence hang the fruits of peace.
secrets
In addition to his comment that men of talent could hit a target that others could not reach, whereas men of genius could hit a target that others could not see, Arthur pointed out that men of talent are called into being by the needs of the age and are capable of satisfying these needs, but their works soon fade away and disappear during the next generation. (Was he thinking of his mother’s works?) “But the genius lights on his age like a comet into the paths of the planets…. he cannot go hand in hand with the regular course of the culture: on the contrary he casts his works far out onto the
...more
Genius and talent
“Politeness is to human nature what warmth is to wax.”
Sooo true
What is suffering? It is “hindrance to this striving by an obstacle placed in the path between the will and its goal.” What is happiness, well-being? It is “attainment of the goal.”
Indeed so well explained
And what is the most terrible thing about boredom? Why do we rush to dispel it? Because it is a distraction-free state which soon enough reveals underlying unpalatable truths about existence—our insignificance, our meaningless existence, our inexorable progression to deterioration and death.
Boredom definition
Hence, what is human life other than an endless cycle of wanting, satisfaction, boredom, and then wanting again? Is that true for all life-forms? Worse for humans, says Schopenhauer, because as intelligence increases, so does the intensity of suffering. So is anyone ever happy? Can anyone ever be happy? Arthur does not think so.
Intelligence
Exactly,” responded Philip with a hint of enthusiasm in his tone. “My view exactly. The idea is that one has to beware of losing oneself in life’s distractions. Heidegger called it falling or being absorbed in the everydayness of life.
about the everydayness of life
“was the idea that relative happiness stems from three sources: what one is, what one has, and what one represents in the eyes of others. He urges that we focus only on the first and do not bank on the second and third—on having and our reputation—because we have no control over those two; they can, and will, be taken away from us—just as your inevitable aging is taking away your beauty. In fact, ‘having’ has a reverse factor, he said—what we have often starts to have us.”
Relativeness Schopenhauer
The best aid for the mind is that which once for all breaks the tormenting bonds that ensnare the heart.—Ovid Whoever seeks peace and quiet should avoid women, the permanent source of trouble and dispute.—Petrarch It is impossible for anyone not to be perfectly happy who depends entirely upon himself and
Guidelines
Was that life? Well, then, once again!’
that's one needs to feel
Schopenhauer had one further method of keeping death-anxiety at bay: death-anxiety is least where self-realization is most. If his position based on universal oneness appears anemic to some, there is little doubt about the robustness of this last defense. Clinicians who work with dying patients have made the observation that death-anxiety is greater in those who feel they have lived an unfulfilled life. A sense of fulfillment, at “consummating one’s life,” as Nietzsche put it, diminishes death-anxiety.
self realization
