The Two Fundamental Problems of Ethics Quotes

“A human being does at all times only what he wills, and yet does it necessarily. But that rests on the fact that he is what he wills: for out of what he is everything that he does at any time follows necessarily.”
― Arthur Schopenhauer, The Two Fundamental Problems of Ethics

“For if the choice were given to any individual between his own destruction and that of the world, I do not need to say where it would land in the great majority.”
― Arthur Schopenhauer, The Two Fundamental Problems of Ethics

“On account of its originality, excellence in every field strikes us as so new and so strange, that to recognize it at first glance will require not only understanding, but also education in the same discipline. As a rule, excellence achieves late recognition, all the later as the discipline is loftier, and those who truly enlighten humankind share the fate of the fixed stars, the light from which requires many years before it descends to the horizon.”
― Arthur Schopenhauer, The Two Fundamental Problems of Ethics

“Under presupposition of free will each human action would be an inexplicable miracle - an effect without cause. And if one dares the attempt to make such a liberum arbitrium indifferentiae imaginable to oneself, one will soon become aware that here the understanding quite genuinely comes to a standstill: it has no form for thinking of such a thing.”
― Arthur Schopenhauer, The Two Fundamental Problems of Ethics

“Compassion is the most likely alleviation of the countless and multifarious sufferings with which our life is beset and which no one completely escapes, and at the same time compassion is the counterbalance to the burning egoism that fills all beings and often develops into malice”
― Arthur Schopenhauer, The Two Fundamental Problems of Ethics

“For boundless compassion for all living beings is the firmest and most certain guarantee of moral good conduct and requires no casuistry. Whoever is filled with it will certainly injure no one, infringe on no one, do no one harm, rather, forbear everyone, forgive everyone, help everyone as much as he can, and all his actions will carry the imprint of justice and loving kindness.”
― Arthur Schopenhauer, The Two Fundamental Problems of Ethics

“The character of the human being is empirical. Only through experience can one become acquainted with it, not merely with that of others, but also with one’s own.”
― Arthur Schopenhauer, The Two Fundamental Problems of Ethics