The Essential Schopenhauer Quotes

“The world is just a hell and in it human beings are the tortured souls on the one hand, and the devils on the other”
― Arthur Schopenhauer, The Essential Schopenhauer

“Just as a brook forms no eddy so long as it meets with no obstructions, so human nature, as well as animal, is such that we do not really notice and perceive all that goes on in accordance with our will. If we were to notice it, then the reason for this would inevitably be that it did not go according to our will, but must have met with some obstacle. On the other hand, everything that obstructs, crosses, or opposes our will, and thus everything unpleasant and painful, is felt by us immediately, at once, and very plainly. Just as we do not feel the health of our whole body, but only the small spot where the shoe pinches, so we do not think of all our affairs that are going on perfectly well, but only of some insignificant trifle that annoys us.”
― Arthur Schopenhauer, The Essential Schopenhauer

“every human individual be aware of the inescapable and arbitrary suffering which is set off by the very existence of the will and refrain from using the imaginative power of our mind to envision it otherwise.”
― Arthur Schopenhauer, The Essential Schopenhauer