What Arthur Schopenhauer thinks about happiness
German philosopher (1788 to 1860); author of The World as Will and Representation (1818) and Parerga and Paralipomena (1851), from which his essays on the wisdom of life are drawn.
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Arthur Schopenhauer did not write this page.
We collected these quotes from things they published elsewhere, and every quote links to where it was said. They have no account here and have not endorsed this site. Quotes are word for word; the short line under each one is our own restatement, not their wording. Their own site. Is this you? Claim it or ask us to remove it. Or tell us what is wrong here.
5 dated positions, c. 1851, in their own words. Our reading of what Arthur Schopenhauer has said — not written or endorsed by them.
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Our readingHealth so outweighs every other blessing that a healthy beggar is happier than a sick king
Their wordsHealth outweighs all other blessings so much that one may really say that a healthy beggar is happier than an ailing king.
↗The Wisdom of Life (Essays of Arthur Schopenhauer, tr. T. Bailey Saunders)gutenberg.org All 4 from this book
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Their wordsFor the safest way of not being very miserable is not to expect to be very happy.
↗Counsels and Maxims (Essays of Arthur Schopenhauer, tr. T. Bailey Saunders)gutenberg.org All 3 from this book
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Their wordsCheerfulness is a direct and immediate gain,—the very coin, as it were, of happiness, and not, like all else, merely a cheque upon the bank; for it alone makes us immediately happy in the present moment, and that is the highest blessing for beings like us, whose existence is but an infinitesimal moment between two eternities. To secure and promote this feeling of cheerfulness should be the supreme aim of all our endeavors after happiness.
↗The Wisdom of Life (Essays of Arthur Schopenhauer, tr. T. Bailey Saunders)gutenberg.org All 4 from this book
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Their wordsFor the more a man has in himself, the less he will want from other people,—the less, indeed, other people can be to him.
↗The Wisdom of Life (Essays of Arthur Schopenhauer, tr. T. Bailey Saunders)gutenberg.org All 4 from this book
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Our readingPeople should sometimes look at their possessions as they would appear if they had lost them
Their wordsWhat I mean is that we should sometimes try to look upon our possessions in the light in which they would appear if we had lost them; whatever they may be, property, health, friends, a wife or child or someone else we love, our horse or our dog—it is usually only when we have lost them that we begin to find out their value.
↗Counsels and Maxims (Essays of Arthur Schopenhauer, tr. T. Bailey Saunders)gutenberg.org All 3 from this book