‘Convictions are more dangerous foes of truth than lies.’
- Friedrich Nietzsche

“Religion is the masterpiece of the art of animal training, for it trains people as to how they shall think. ” 
― Arthur Schopenhauer

“It would be better if there were nothing. Since there is more pain than pleasure on earth, every satisfaction is only transitory, creating new desires and new distresses, and the agony of the devoured animal is always far greater than the pleasure of the devourer” 
― Arthur Schopenhauer

"Circumstances make man, not man circumstances"
- Mark Twain

Man can do what he wills but he cannot will what he wills.” 
― Arthur Schopenhauer, Essays and Aphorisms

“The safest way of not being very miserable is not to expect to be very happy.” 
― Arthur Schopenhauer

“If children were brought into the world by an act of pure reason alone, would the human race continue to exist? Would not a man rather have so much sympathy with the coming generation as to spare it the burden of existence, or at any rate not take it upon himself to impose that burden upon it in cold blood?” 
― Arthur Schopenhauer, Studies in Pessimism: The Essays

“I have not yet spoken my last word about women. I believe that if a woman succeeds in withdrawing from the mass, or rather raising herself from above the mass, she grows ceaselessly and more than a man.” 
― Arthur Schopenhauer, Schopenhauer and the Wild Years of Philosophy

“Human life must be some kind of mistake. The truth of this will be sufficiently obvious if we only remember that man is a compound of needs and necessities hard to satisfy; and that even when they are satisfied, all he obtains is a state of painlessness, where nothing remains to him but abandonment to boredom. This is direct proof that existence has no
real value in itself; for what is boredom but the feeling of the emptiness of life? If life—the craving for which is the very essence of our being—were possessed of any positive intrinsic value, there would be no such thing as boredom at all: mere existence would satisfy us in itself, and we should want for nothing.” 
― Arthur Schopenhauer, Studies in Pessimism: The Essays

“Pleasure is never as pleasant as we expected it to be and pain is always more painful. The pain in the world always outweighs the pleasure. If you don't believe it, compare the respective feelings of two animals, one of which is eating the other.” 
― Arthur Schopenhauer



“We forfeit three-fourths of ourselves in order to be like other people.” 
― Arthur Schopenhauer

“It is a wise thing to be polite; consequently, it is a stupid thing to be rude. To make enemies by unnecessary and willful incivility, is just as insane a proceeding as to set your house on fire. For politeness is like a counter--an avowedly false coin, with which it is foolish to be stingy.” 
― Arthur Schopenhauer, The Wisdom of Life and Counsels and Maxims

“A high degree of intellect tends to make a man unsocial.” 
― Arthur Schopenhauer, The Wisdom of Life and Counsels and Maxims

“What disturbs and depresses young people is the hunt for happiness on the firm assumption that it must be met with in life. From this arises constantly deluded hope and so also dissatisfaction. Deceptive images of a vague happiness hover before us in our dreams, and we search in vain for their original. Much would have been gained if, through timely advice and instruction, young people could have had eradicated from their minds the erroneous notion that the world has a great deal to offer them.” 
― Arthur Schopenhauer

"Whoever has lived long enough to find out what life is, knows how deep a debt of gratitude we owe to Adam, the first great benefactor of our race. He brought death into the world."
- Mark Twain

"No sane man can be happy, for to him life is real, and he sees what a fearful thing it is. Only the mad can be happy, and not many of those"
- Mark Twain

“Compassion is the basis of morality.” 
― Arthur Schopenhauer

“A man can be himself only so long as he is alone; and if he does not love solitude, he will not love freedom; for it is only when he is alone that he is really free.” 
― Arthur Schopenhauer, Essays and Aphorisms

“They tell us that Suicide is the greatest piece of Cowardice... That Suicide is wrong; when it is quite obvious that there is nothing in this world to which every man has a more unassailable title than to his own life and person.” 
― Arthur Schopenhauer

“One should use common words to say uncommon things” 
― Arthur Schopenhauer

“Every miserable fool who has nothing at all of which he can be proud, adopts as a last resource pride in the nation to which he belongs; he is ready and happy to defend all its faults and follies tooth and nail, thus reimbursing himself for his own inferiority.” 
― Arthur Schopenhauer, Essays and Aphorisms