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The Wisdom of Life

Arthur Schopenhauer/1851 / 19th century

CharacterHappinessPrudenceWorldly Suffering

CharacterHappinessPrudenceWorldly Suffering

Ethics in the Pessimism tradition, oriented around character and happiness.

Drawn from Schopenhauer's later essays, The Wisdom of Life translates his larger pessimistic philosophy into practical reflections on temperament, reputation, success, and everyday contentment. It shows the author at his most readable, bringing metaphysical severity into contact with ordinary life.

150 excerpts/5 sections

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Chapters

The structural skeleton of the work

Section 1

Introduction

2 excerpts

Top themes in this chapter

Ethics1 excerpt Eudaemonology1 excerpt Folly1 excerpt Human Nature1 excerpt The Art Of Living1 excerpt

Wisdom's Unheeded Echo

In general, indeed, the wise in all ages have always said the same thing, and the fools, who at all times form the immense majority, have in their way too acted alike, and done just the opposite; and so it will continue. For, as Voltaire says, we shall leave this world as foolish and as wicked as we found it on our arrival.

Section 2

Chapter I. DIVISION OF THE SUBJECT.

12 excerpts

Top themes in this chapter

Happiness4 excerpts Subjectivity3 excerpts Character2 excerpts Inner Life2 excerpts Intellect2 excerpts

The Same Poor Player

In plain language, every man is pent up within the limits of his own consciousness, and cannot directly get beyond those limits any more than he can get beyond his own skin; so external aid is not of much use to him. On the stage, one man is a prince, another a minister, a third a servant or a soldier or a general, and so on,--mere external differences: the inner reality, the kernel of all these appearances is the same--a poor player, with all the anxieties of his lot. In life it is just the same. Differences of rank and wealth give every man his part to play, but this by no means implies a difference of inward happiness and pleasure; here, too, there is the same being in all--a poor mortal, with his hardships and troubles.

Section 3

Chapter II. PERSONALITY, OR WHAT A MAN IS.

48 excerpts

Top themes in this chapter

Happiness12 excerpts Boredom10 excerpts Intellect10 excerpts Leisure7 excerpts Solitude7 excerpts

The Self-Colored Lens

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 expression, "to enjoy one's self," we are employing a very striking and appropriate phrase; for observe--one says, not "he enjoys Paris," but "he enjoys himself in Paris." To a man possessed of an ill-conditioned individuality, all pleasure is like delicate wine in a mouth made bitter with gall.

Section 4

Chapter III. PROPERTY, OR WHAT A MAN HAS.

10 excerpts

Top themes in this chapter

Desire5 excerpts Wealth5 excerpts Human Nature2 excerpts Money2 excerpts Utility2 excerpts

Wealth's Relative Measure

It is difficult, if not impossible, to define the limits which reason should impose on the desire for wealth; for there is no absolute or definite amount of wealth which will satisfy a man. The amount is always relative, that is to say, just so much as will maintain the proportion between what he wants and what he gets; for to measure a man's happiness only by what he gets, and not also by what he expects to get, is as futile as to try and express a fraction which shall have a numerator but no denominator.

Section 5

Chapter IV. POSITION, OR A MAN'S PLACE IN THE ESTIMATION OF OTHERS.

78 excerpts

Top themes in this chapter

Honor21 excerpts Fame11 excerpts Stoicism10 excerpts Happiness9 excerpts Human Nature9 excerpts

Focus on Personal Reality

We should add very much to our happiness by a timely recognition of the simple truth that every man's chief and real existence is in his own skin, and not in other people's opinions; and, consequently, that the actual conditions of our personal life,--health, temperament, capacity, income, wife, children, friends, home, are a hundred times more important for our happiness than what other people are pleased to think of us: otherwise we shall be miserable.