[Footnote 1: _Translator's Note_.--Also in French.]
* * * * *
Poets and philosophers who are married men incur by that very fact the
suspicion that they are looking to their own welfare, and not to the
interests of science and art.
* * * * *
Habit is everything. Hence to be calm and unruffled is merely to
anticipate a habit; and it is a great advantage not to need to form
it.
* * * * *
"Personality is the element of the greatest happiness." Since _pain_
and _boredom_ are the two chief enemies of human happiness, nature has
provided our personality with a protection against both. We can
ward off pain, which is more often of the mind than of the body, by
_cheerfulness_; and boredom by _intelligence_. But neither of these
is akin to the other; nay, in any high degree they are perhaps
incompatible. As Aristotle remarks, genius is allied to melancholy;
and people of very cheerful disposition are only intelligent on the
surface. The better, therefore, anyone is by nature armed against one
of these evils, the worse, as a rule, is he armed against the other.
There is no human life that is free from pain and boredom; and it is a
special favour on the part of fate if a man is chiefly exposed to the
evil against which nature has armed him the better; if fate, that is,
sends a great deal of pain where there is a very cheerful temper in
which to bear it, and much leisure where there is much intelligence,
but not _vice versâ_. For if a man is intelligent, he feels pain
doubly or trebly; and a cheerful but unintellectual temper finds
solitude and unoccupied leisure altogether unendurable.
* * * * *
In the sphere of thought, absurdity and perversity remain the masters
of this world, and their dominion is suspended only for brief periods.
Nor is it otherwise in art; for there genuine work, seldom found
and still more seldom appreciated, is again and again driven out by
dullness, insipidity, and affectation.
It is just the same in the sphere of action. Most men, says Bias, are
bad. Virtue is a stranger in this world; and boundless egoism, cunning
and malice, are always the order of the day. It is wrong to deceive
the young on this point, for it will only make them feel later on that
their teachers were the first to deceive them. If the object is
to render the pupil a better man by telling him that others are
excellent, it fails; and it would be more to the purpose to say: Most
men are bad, it is for you to be better. In this way he would, at
least, be sent out into the world armed with a shrewd foresight,
instead of having to be convinced by bitter experience that his
teachers were wrong.
All ignorance is dangerous, and most errors must be dearly paid. And
good luck must he have that carries unchastised an error in his head
unto his death.[1]
[Footnote 1: _Translator's Note_.--This, again, is Schopenhauer's own
English.]
* * * * *
Every piece of success has a doubly beneficial effect upon us when,
apart from the special and material advantage which it brings it is
accompanied by the enlivening assurance that the world, fate, or the
daemon within, does not mean so badly with us, nor is so opposed to
our prosperity as we had fancied; when, in fine, it restores our
courage to live.
Similarly, every misfortune or defeat has, in the contrary sense, an
effect that is doubly depressing.
* * * * *
If we were not all of us exaggeratedly interested in ourselves, life
would be so uninteresting that no one could endure it.
* * * * *
Everywhere in the world, and under all circumstances, it is only by
force that anything can be done; but power is mostly in bad hands,
because baseness is everywhere in a fearful majority.
* * * * *
Why should it be folly to be always intent on getting the greatest
possible enjoyment out of the moment, which is our only sure
possession? Our whole life is no more than a magnified present, and in
itself as fleeting.
* * * * *
As a consequence of his individuality and the position in which he
is placed, everyone without exception lives in a certain state of
limitation, both as regards his ideas and the opinions which he forms.
Another man is also limited, though not in the same way; but should
he succeed in comprehending the other's limitation he can confuse
and abash him, and put him to shame, by making him feel what his
limitation is, even though the other be far and away his superior.
Shrewd people often employ this circumstance to obtain a false and
momentary advantage.
* * * * *
The only genuine superiority is that of the mind and character; all
other kinds are fictitious, affected, false; and it is good to
make them feel that it is so when they try to show off before the
superiority that is true.[1]
[Footnote 1: _Translator's Note_.--In the original this also is in
French.]
* * * * *
_All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players_.
Exactly! Independently of what a man really is in himself, he has
a part to play, which fate has imposed upon him from without, by
determining his rank, education, and circumstances. The most immediate
application of this truth appears to me to be that in life, as on
the stage, we must distinguish between the actor and his part;
distinguish, that is, the man in himself from his position and
reputation--- from the part which rank and circumstances have imposed
upon him. How often it is that the worst actor plays the king, and the
best the beggar! This may happen in life, too; and a man must be very
_crude_ to confuse the actor with his part.
* * * * *
Our life is so poor that none of the treasures of the world can make
it rich; for the sources of enjoyment are soon found to be all very
scanty, and it is in vain that we look for one that will always flow.
Therefore, as regards our own welfare, there are only two ways in
which we can use wealth. We can either spend it in ostentatious pomp,
and feed on the cheap respect which our imaginary glory will bring us
from the infatuated crowd; or, by avoiding all expenditure that will
do us no good, we can let our wealth grow, so that we may have a
bulwark against misfortune and want that shall be stronger and better
every day; in view of the fact that life, though it has few delights,
is rich in evils.
* * * * *
It is just because our real and inmost being is _will_ that it is only
by its exercise that we can attain a vivid consciousness of existence,
although this is almost always attended by pain. Hence it is that
existence is essentially painful, and that many persons for whose
wants full provision is made arrange their day in accordance with
extremely regular, monotonous, and definite habits. By this means they
avoid all the pain which the movement of the will produces; but, on
the other hand, their whole existence becomes a series of scenes and
pictures that mean nothing. They are hardly aware that they exist.
Nevertheless, it is the best way of settling accounts with life, so
long as there is sufficient change to prevent an excessive feeling of
boredom. It is much better still if the Muses give a man some worthy
occupation, so that the pictures which fill his consciousness have
some meaning, and yet not a meaning that can be brought into any
relation with his will.
* * * * *
A man is _wise_ only on condition of living in a world full of fools.