The Wisdom of Life

by Arthur Schopenhauer

What a man is:

What a man has:

How a man stands in the estimation of others:

This is shown by their opinion of him; and their opinion is in its turn manifested by the honor in which he is held, and by his rank and reputation.

This is why the same external events or circumstances affect no two people alike; even with perfectly similar surroundings every one lives in a world of his own.

Differences of rank and wealth give every man his part to play, but this by no means implies a difference of inward happiness and pleasure; here, too, there is the same being in all — a poor mortal, with his hardships and troubles.

the most essential thing for a man is the constitution of this consciousness, which is in most cases far more important than the circumstances which go to form its contents.

All the pride and pleasure of the world, mirrored in the dull consciousness of a fool, are poor indeed compared with the imagination of Cervantes writing his Don Quixote in a miserable prison.

This highlights Schopenhauer’s statement for this section that what a man’s is Carrie’s more weight than what a man has.

An animal, under whatever circumstances it is placed, remains within the narrow limits to which nature has irrevocably consigned it; so that our endeavors to make a pet happy must always keep within the compass of its nature, and be restricted to what it can feel.

Our lot, in this sense, may improve; but we do not ask much of it if we are inwardly rich: on the other hand, a fool remains a fool, a dull blockhead, to his last hour,

a healthy beggar is happier than an ailing king.

The only thing that stands in our power to achieve, is to make the most advantageous use possible of the personal qualities we possess,

men are a thousand times more intent on becoming rich than on acquiring culture, though it is quite certain that what a man is contributes much more to his happiness than what he has.

less depends upon what befalls us than upon the way in which it is met,

we can more easily bear a misfortune which comes to us entirely from without, than one which we have drawn upon ourselves; for fortune may always change, but not character.

If you laugh a great deal, you are happy; if you cry a great deal, you are unhappy;

Genius 🤦‍♂️😂

Cheerfulness is a direct and immediate gain — the very coin, as it were, of happiness, and not, like all else, merely a cheque upon the bank;