Counsels and Maxims From The Essays Of Arthur Schopenhauer

ristotle parenthetically refers in the Nichomachean Ethics:[1] [Greek: o phronimoz to alupon dioke e ou t

1: vii.

the sense of general well-being, and destroying all our comfort in life. In the same way, when all our affairs but one turn out as we wish, the single instance in which our aims are frustrated is a constant trouble to us, even though it be something quite trivial. We think a great deal about it, and very little about those other and more important matters in which we have been successful. In both these cases what has met with resistance is the will; in the one case, as it is objectified in the organism, in the other, as it presents itself

s Wille und Vorstell

f eudaemonology; for all eudaemonology must begin by recognizing that its very name is a euphemism, and that to live happily only means to live less unhappily-to live a tolerable life. There is no doubt that life is given us, not to be enjoyed, but to be overcome-to be got over. There are numerous expressions illustrating this-such as degere vitam, vita defungi; or in Italian, si scampa cosi; or in German, man muss suchen durchzukommen; er wird schon durch die Welt kommen, and so on. In old age it is indeed a consolation to think that the work of life is over and done with. The happiest lot is not to have experienc

y into a garden of pleasure, to aim at joy and pleasure rather than at the greatest possible freedom from pain-and yet how many do it!-there is some wisdom in taking a gloomy view, in looking upon the world as a kind of Hell, and in confining one's efforts to securing a little room that shall not be exposed to the fire. The fool rushes after the pleasures of life and finds himself their dupe; the wise man avoids its evils; and even if, notwithstanding his precautions, he falls

rror, the image of a happiness that has no counterpart in reality, seducing us to follow it; in doing so we bring pain upon ourselves, and that is something undeniably real. Afterwards

the work of some evil spirit, conjured up in order to entice us

to be deceived by outward show-the hypocrisy that characterizes the world from beginning to end; on which I shall have something to say presently. The result is that his life is the more or less deliberate pursuit of positive happiness; and happiness he takes to be equivalent to a series of definite pleasures. In seeking for th

who is always trying to make other people happy: To desire to get rid of an evil is a definite object, but to desire a better fortune than one has is blind folly. The same truth is contained in that fine French proverb: le mieux est l'ennemi du bien-leave well alone. And, as I have remarked in my chief work,[1] this is the leading thought underlying the philosophical system of the Cynics. For what was it led the Cynics to repudiate pleasure in every form, if it was not the fact that pain is, in a gr

Wille und Vorstellun

thing in the world is at its command, in virtue of an unassailable right, not only to all we have or acquire, to wife or child, but even to our very limbs, our arms, legs, eyes and ears, nay, even to the nose in the middle of our face. And in any case, after some little time, we learn by exper

ect to be very happy. Merck, the friend of Goethe's youth, was conscious of this truth when he wrote: It is the wretched way people have of setting up a claim to happiness-and, that to, in a measure corresponding with their desires-that ruins everything in this world. A man will make progress if he can get rid of this claim,[1] and desire nothing but what he sees before him. Accordingly it is advisable to put very moderate limits upon our e

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be a mark for envy. It is the tall pine which is cruelly shaken by the wind, the hig

Letters to an

: Horace. O

st wisdom-he will have no great expectations from anything or any condition in life: he will spend passion upon nothing in the world, nor lament over-much if he fails in any of his undertakings.

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1: Republi

tor's Note. From the

eing the Persian ve

E.B. Eastwick, ch. i

pretence and suggestion,-as it were the hieroglyphic,-of joy: but just there, joy is, as a rule, not to be found; it is the only guest who has declined to be present at the festival. Where this guest may really be found, he comes generally without invitation; he is not formerly announced, but slips in quietly by himself sans facon; often making his appearance under the most unimportant and trivial circumstances, and in the commonest company-anywhere, in short, but wher

f carriages! But look into them-they are all empty; the coachmen of the whole town are the sole escort the dead man has to his grave

ood society is everywhere of necessity very small. In brilliant festivals and noisy entertainments, there is always, at bottom, a sense of emptiness prevalent. A false tone is there: such gatherings are in strange contrast with the misery and barrenness of our existence. The contrast brings the true condition into greater relief.

tion, power of sarcasm, and epigrammic force, coupled with an extraordinary career, render him one of the most interes

to be found elsewhere. The chiming of bells, ecclesiastical millinery, attitudes of devotion, insane antics-these are the pretence, the false show of piety. And so on. Everything in the world i

lease him, but what things trouble him; and the more trivial these things are in themselves, the happier t

offers many more opportunities for accidents; and accidents are always happening. The architecture of happiness follows a plan in this respect just the opposite of that adopted in every other case, where the broadest

e, the full and complete term of years appointed to man-and how few reach it! and even if it be reached, it is still too short for all the plans that have been made; for to carry them

the capacity whether for achievement or for enjoyment does not last a whole lifetime. So we often toil for things which are no longer suite

o many years of toil and struggle. Fortune has come too late for him; or, contrarily, he has come too late for fortune,-when, for instance, he wants to achieve great things, say, in art or literature: the popular taste has changed, it may

orem Consiliis a

e 1: Ode

king life, at its beginning, seem of long duration; and at its end, when one looks back over the course of it,

especially with our wishes. We often find something else, nay, something better than what we are looking for; and what we look for, we often find on a very different path from that on which we

ords, they treat of human nature only from the side of the will. So, too, in the Zauberfl?te-that grotesque, but still significant, and even hieroglyphic-the same thought is symbolized, but in great, coarse lines, much in the way in which scenery is painted. Here the s

its teachings. They recognize that the fruit of life is experience, and not happiness; they become accustomed and co

o che 'mpara

s it were, for the sake of appearances; all the while really and seriously looking for nothing but in

her things-gunpowder, china, medicines, the laws of na