Every human perfection is linked to an error which it threatens to become.
Use itGS4: every virtue in excess becomes a fault.
Quotes / Thinkers / Arthur Schopenhauer
Thinker · 17 quotes
Arthur Schopenhauer quotes for UPSC
17 sourced quotes by Arthur Schopenhauer on mind & self-awareness, truth & wisdom, character & virtue, education & knowledge, media, speech & public opinion, with a use case for each in GS4, Essay and interviews.
✓ Attributions checked against Wikiquote's sourced list
Fame is something which must be won; honor, only something which must not be lost.
Use itGS4: honour must be preserved; fame must be earned.
Compassion for animals is intimately connected with goodness of character, and it may be confidently asserted that he, who is cruel to living creatures, cannot be a good man. Moreover, this compassion manifestly flows from the same source whence arise the virtues of justice and loving-kindness towards men.
— Arthur SchopenhauerPart III, Ch. VIII, 7, p. 223
Use itGS4 on animal welfare; cruelty to animals reflects bad character.
Buying books would be a good thing if one could also buy the time to read them in: but as a rule the purchase of books is mistaken for the appropriation of their contents.
Use itLife: owning books isn't reading them; avoid hoarding study material.
Men of learning are those who have read the contents of books. Thinkers, geniuses, and those who have enlightened the world and furthered the race of men, are those who have made direct use of the book of the world.
— Arthur Schopenhauer"Thinking for Oneself"
Use itEssay on knowledge vs wisdom; real thinkers learn from the world, not just books.
Talent hits a target no one else can hit; genius hits a target no one else can see.
— Arthur SchopenhauerDas Talent gleicht dem Schützen, der ein Ziel trifft, welches die Uebrigen nicht erreichen können; das Genie dem, der eines trifft, bis zu w
Use itEssay on innovation; genius sees what others cannot.
If there is anything in the world that can really be called a man’s property, it is surely that which is the result of his mental activity.
— Arthur SchopenhauerUnverified attribution noted in Respectfully Quoted: A Dictionary of Quotations (1993), ed. Suzy Platt, Library of Congress, p. 227
Use itGS3 on intellectual property rights; mental creations as one's truest property.
The truth can wait, for she lives a long life.
Use itGS4/Essay: truth is patient and outlasts falsehood.
Mostly it is loss which teaches us about the worth of things.
Use itLife: we often value things only after losing them; e.g. ecosystems or health.
The discovery of truth is prevented more effectively, not by the false appearance things present and which mislead into error, not directly by weakness of the reasoning powers, but by preconceived opinion, by prejudice.
Use itGS4 on bias; prejudice blocks truth more than error.
Newspapers are the second hand of history. This hand, however, is usually not only of inferior metal to the other hands, it also seldom works properly.
Use itEssay on media; news is history's unreliable second hand.
Opinion is like a pendulum and obeys the same law. If it goes past the centre of gravity on one side, it must go a like distance on the other; and it is only after a certain time that it finds the true point at which it can remain at rest.
— Arthur SchopenhauerVol. 2 "Further Psychological Observations" as translated in Essays and Aphorisms (1970), as translated by R. J. Hollingdale
Use itEssay on public opinion; swings to extremes before settling at balance.
Wealth is like sea-water; the more we drink, the thirstier we become.
— Arthur SchopenhauerE. Payne, trans. (1974) Vol. 1, p. 347
Use itEssay on greed and consumerism; more wealth fuels more desire.
We forfeit three-fourths of ourselves in order to be like other people.
— Arthur SchopenhauerAs attributed in Dictionary of Quotations from Ancient and Modern English and Foreign Sources (1899) by James Wood, p. 624
Use itLife/Essay on conformity; we lose most of ourselves trying to fit in.
Every man takes the limits of his own field of vision for the limits of the world.
— Arthur Schopenhauer"Psychological Observations"
Use itGS4/Essay on narrow perspective; people mistake their view for the whole world.
Obstinacy is the result of the will forcing itself into the place of the intellect.
Use itGS4/Life: obstinacy is will overriding reason.
A reproach can only hurt if it hits the mark. Whoever knows that he does not deserve a reproach can treat it with contempt.
— Arthur SchopenhauerParerga and Paralipomena (1851) / Aphorisms on the Wisdom of Life
Use itLife/GS4: unfair criticism need not hurt if you know it's undeserved.