Parerga and Paralipomena Quotes

“Voltaire exclaims: ‘Oh metaphysics! We have come precisely as far as in the time of the early Druids.’c But what other science has always had, like it, the constant handicap of an antagonist ex officio, an appointed fiscal prosecutor, and a king’s champion in full armour who attack it defenceless and unarmed? It will never reveal its true powers or be able to take its giant strides as long as it is expected to conform, under threat, to the dogmas that accrue to the ever so tiny capacity of the great mob. First they bind our arms, and then they mock us for not being able to achieve anything.”
― Arthur Schopenhauer, Parerga and Paralipomena (Short Philosophical Essays): Volume 2

“There is no literary quality, such as for instance power of persuasion, wealth of imagery, gift of comparison, boldness or bitterness or brevity or grace or facility of expression, no wit, striking contrasts, curtness, naïveté, and so on, which we can acquire by reading authors who have such qualities. But in this way we can bring about such qualities in ourselves, in the event of our already possessing them as a tendency or inclination and thus potentia; and we can become aware of them.”
― Arthur Schopenhauer, Parerga and Paralipomena: Short Philosophical Essays, Vol. 2

“There is no literary quality, such as for instance power of persuasion, wealth of imagery, gift of comparison, boldness or bitterness or brevity or grace or facility of expression, no wit, striking contrasts, curtness, naïveté, and so on, which we can acquire by reading authors who have such qualities. But in this way we can bring about such qualities in ourselves, in the event of our already possessing them as a tendency or inclination and thus ”
― Arthur Schopenhauer, Parerga and Paralipomena: Short Philosophical Essays, Vol. 2