We are accustomed to see poets principally occupied with describing the love of the sexes. This, as a rule, is the leading idea of every dramatic work, be it tragic or comic, romantic or classic, Indian or European. It in no less degree constitutes the greater part of both lyric and epic poetry, especially if in these we include the host of romances which have been produced every year for centuries in every civilised country in Europe as regularly as the fruits of the earth. All these works are nothing more than many-sided, short, or long descriptions of the passion in...
Essays - Post by : lamar - Date : April 2011 - Author : Arthur Schopenhauer - Read : 1073
Aristotle(1) divides the blessings of life into three classes--those which come to us from without, those of the soul, and those of the body. Keeping nothing of this division but the number, I observe that the fundamental differences in human lot may be reduced to three distinct classes: (Footnote 1: _Eth. Nichom_., I. 8.) (1) What a man is: that is to say, personality, in the widest sense of the word; under which are included health, strength, beauty, temperament, moral character, intelligence, and education. (2) What a man has: that is, property and possessions of every kind. (3) How a man...
Essays - Post by : Wade_Pettis - Date : April 2011 - Author : Arthur Schopenhauer - Read : 2826
We have already seen, in general, that what a man _is_ contributes much more to his happiness than what he _has_, or how he is regarded by others. What a man is, and so what he has in his own person, is always the chief thing to consider; for his individuality accompanies him always and everywhere, and gives its color to all his experiences. In every kind of enjoyment, for instance, the pleasure depends principally upon the man himself. Every one admits this in regard to physical, and how much truer it is of intellectual, pleasure. When we use that English...
Essays - Post by : martindemadrid - Date : April 2011 - Author : Arthur Schopenhauer - Read : 3656
Epicurus divides the needs of mankind into three classes, and the division made by this great professor of happiness is a true and a fine one. First come natural and necessary needs, such as, when not satisfied, produce pain,--food and clothing, _victus et amictus_, needs which can easily be satisfied. Secondly, there are those needs which, though natural, are not necessary, such as the gratification of certain of the senses. I may add, however, that in the report given by Diogenes Laertius, Epicurus does not mention which of the senses he means; so that on this point my account of his...
Essays - Post by : Jill_Kane - Date : April 2011 - Author : Arthur Schopenhauer - Read : 1368
(Position, or A Man's Place in the Estimation of Others > Section 2. Reputation) By a peculiar weakness of human nature, people generally think too much about the opinion which others form of them; although the slightest reflection will show that this opinion, whatever it may be, is not in itself essential to happiness. Therefore it is hard to understand why everybody feels so very pleased when he sees that other people have a good opinion of him, or say anything flattering to his vanity. If you stroke a cat, it will purr; and, as inevitably, if you praise a man,...
Essays - Post by : Phil_Graham - Date : April 2011 - Author : Arthur Schopenhauer - Read : 1834
(Position, or A Man's Place in the Estimation of Others > Section 2. Pride) The folly of our nature which we are discussing puts forth three shoots, ambition, vanity and pride. The difference between the last two is this: _pride_ is an established conviction of one's own paramount worth in some particular respect; while _vanity_ is the desire of rousing such a conviction in others, and it is generally accompanied by the secret hope of ultimately coming to the same conviction oneself. Pride works _from within_; it is the direct appreciation of oneself. Vanity is the desire to arrive at this...
Essays - Post by : software - Date : April 2011 - Author : Arthur Schopenhauer - Read : 1217
(Position, or A Man's Place in the Estimation of Others > Section 3. Rank) Let us take rank first, as it may be dismissed in a few words, although it plays an important part in the eyes of the masses and of the philistines, and is a most useful wheel in the machinery of the State. It has a purely conventional value. Strictly speaking, it is a sham; its method is to exact an artificial respect, and, as a matter of fact, the whole thing is a mere farce. Orders, it may be said, are bills of exchange drawn on public...
Essays - Post by : infinityrose - Date : April 2011 - Author : Arthur Schopenhauer - Read : 3713
(Position, or A Man's Place in the Estimation of Others > Section 4. Honor) Honor is a much larger question than rank, and more difficult to discuss. Let us begin by trying to define it. If I were to say _Honor is external conscience, and conscience is inward honor_, no doubt a good many people would assent; but there would be more show than reality about such a definition, and it would hardly go to the root of the matter. I prefer to say, _Honor is, on its objective side, other people's opinion of what we are worth; on its subjective...
Essays - Post by : Webminer - Date : April 2011 - Author : Arthur Schopenhauer - Read : 3594
(Position, or A Man's Place in the Estimation of Others > Section 5. Fame) Under the heading of place in the estimation of the world we have put _Fame_; and this we must now proceed to consider. Fame and honor are twins; and twins, too, like Castor and Pollux, of whom the one was mortal and the other was not. Fame is the undying brother of ephemeral honor. I speak, of course, of the highest kind of fame, that is, of fame in the true and genuine sense of the word; for, to be sure, there are many sorts of fame,...
Essays - Post by : gouzts - Date : April 2011 - Author : Arthur Schopenhauer - Read : 3691
(Translated by T. Bailey Saunders) There are, first of all, two kinds of authors: those who write for the subject's sake, and those who write for writing's sake. While the one have had thoughts or experiences which seem to them worth communicating, the others want money; and so they write, for money. Their thinking is part of the business of writing. They may be recognized by the way in which they spin out their thoughts to the greatest possible length; then, too, by the very nature of their thoughts, which are only half-true, perverse, forced, vacillating; again, by the aversion they...
Essays - Post by : EbizPro - Date : April 2011 - Author : Arthur Schopenhauer - Read : 1646
(Translated by T. Bailey Saunders) Style is the physiognomy of the mind, and a safer index to character than the face. To imitate another man's style is like wearing a mask, which, be it never so fine, is not long in arousing disgust and abhorrence, because it is lifeless; so that even the ugliest living face is better. Hence those who write in Latin and copy the manner of ancient authors, may be said to speak through a mask; the reader, it is true, hears what they say, but he cannot observe their physiognomy too; he cannot see their _style_. With...
Essays - Post by : Joanne_L._Mason - Date : April 2011 - Author : Arthur Schopenhauer - Read : 1744
(Translated by T. Bailey Saunders) The abolition of Latin as the universal language of learned men, together with the rise of that provincialism which attaches to national literatures, has been a real misfortune for the cause of knowledge in Europe. For it was chiefly through the medium of the Latin language that a learned public existed in Europe at all--a public to which every book as it came out directly appealed. The number of minds in the whole of Europe that are capable of thinking and judging is small, as it is; but when the audience is broken up and severed...
Essays - Post by : JPatrick - Date : April 2011 - Author : Arthur Schopenhauer - Read : 3163
(Translated by T. Bailey Saunders) When one sees the number and variety of institutions which exist for the purposes of education, and the vast throng of scholars and masters, one might fancy the human race to be very much concerned about truth and wisdom. But here, too, appearances are deceptive. The masters teach in order to gain money, and strive, not after wisdom, but the outward show and reputation of it; and the scholars learn, not for the sake of knowledge and insight, but to be able to chatter and give themselves airs. Every thirty years a new race comes into...
Essays - Post by : baldeggs - Date : April 2011 - Author : Arthur Schopenhauer - Read : 1565
(Translated by T. Bailey Saunders) A library may be very large; but if it is in disorder, it is not so useful as one that is small but well arranged. In the same way, a man may have a great mass of knowledge, but if he has not worked it up by thinking it over for himself, it has much less value than a far smaller amount which he has thoroughly pondered. For it is only when a man looks at his knowledge from all sides, and combines the things he knows by comparing truth with truth, that he obtains a...
Essays - Post by : HSPost - Date : April 2011 - Author : Arthur Schopenhauer - Read : 2638
(Translated by T. Bailey Saunders) In the drama, which is the most perfect reflection of human existence, there are three stages in the presentation of the subject, with a corresponding variety in the design and scope of the piece. At the first, which is also the most common, stage, the drama is never anything more than merely _interesting_. The persons gain our attention by following their own aims, which resemble ours; the action advances by means of intrigue and the play of character and incident; while wit and raillery season the whole. At the second stage, the drama becomes _sentimental_. Sympathy...
Essays - Post by : maxrijen - Date : April 2011 - Author : Arthur Schopenhauer - Read : 1509
(Translated by T. Bailey Saunders) The following brief remarks on the critical faculty are chiefly intended to show that, for the most part, there is no such thing. It is a _rara avis_; almost as rare, indeed, as the phoenix, which appears only once in five hundred years. When we speak of _taste_--an expression not chosen with any regard for it--we mean the discovery, or, it may be only the recognition, of what is _right aesthetically_, apart from the guidance of any rule; and this, either because no rule has as yet been extended to the matter in question, or else...
Essays - Post by : fbyrne - Date : April 2011 - Author : Arthur Schopenhauer - Read : 3616
(Translated by T. Bailey Saunders) Writers may be classified as meteors, planets and fixed stars. A meteor makes a striking effect for a moment. You look up and cry _There!_ and it is gone for ever. Planets and wandering stars last a much longer time. They often outshine the fixed stars and are confounded with them by the inexperienced; but this only because they are near. It is not long before they must yield their place; nay, the light they give is reflected only, and the sphere of their influence is confined to their own orbit--their contemporaries. Their path is one...
Essays - Post by : Tomas - Date : April 2011 - Author : Arthur Schopenhauer - Read : 1830
(Translated by T. Bailey Saunders) No difference of rank, position, or birth, is so great as the gulf that separates the countless millions who use their head only in the service of their belly, in other words, look upon it as an instrument of the will, and those very few and rare persons who have the courage to say: No! it is too good for that; my head shall be active only in its own service; it shall try to comprehend the wondrous and varied spectacle of this world, and then reproduce it in some form, whether as art or as...
Essays - Post by : coinn13 - Date : April 2011 - Author : Arthur Schopenhauer - Read : 2901
(Translated by T. Bailey Saunders) By the ancients, Logic and Dialectic were used as synonymous terms; although (Greek: logizesthai), "to think over, to consider, to calculate," and (Greek: dialegesthai), "to converse," are two very different things. The name Dialectic was, as we are informed by Diogenes Laertius, first used by Plato; and in the _Phaedrus, Sophist, Republic_, bk. vii., and elsewhere, we find that by Dialectic he means the regular employment of the reason, and skill in the practice of it. Aristotle also uses the word in this sense; but, according to Laurentius Valla, he was the first to use Logic...
Essays - Post by : cct3000 - Date : April 2011 - Author : Arthur Schopenhauer - Read : 1864
(Translated by T. Bailey Saunders) First of all, we must consider the essential nature of every dispute: what it is that really takes place in it. Our opponent has stated a thesis, or we ourselves,--it is all one. There are two modes of refuting it, and two courses that we may pursue. I. The modes are (1) _ad rem_, (2) _ad hominem_ or _ex concessis_. That is to say: We may show either that the proposition is not in accordance with the nature of things, i.e., with absolute, objective truth; or that it is inconsistent with other statements or admissions of...
Essays - Post by : DonTino - Date : April 2011 - Author : Arthur Schopenhauer - Read : 3839
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Metaphysics Of Love
