The Wisdom of Life (Essays of Arthur Schopenhauer)

by Arthur Schopenhauer

world in which a man lives shapes itself chiefly by the way in which he looks at it,

of rank and wealth give every man his part to play, but this by no means implies a difference of inward happiness and pleasure;

Health outweighs all other blessings so much that one may really say that a healthy beggar is happier than an ailing king.

An intellectual man in complete solitude has excellent entertainment in his own thoughts and fancies, while no amount of diversity or social pleasure, theatres, excursions and amusements, can ward off boredom from a dullard.

As Epictetus says, Men are not influenced by things, but by their thoughts about things.

For the more a man has in himself, the less he will want from other people,—the less, indeed, other people can be to him. This is why a high degree of intellect tends to make a man unsocial.