The Collected Essays of Arthur Schopenhauer (Unexpurgated Edition) (Halcyon Classics)

ON READING AND BOOKS.

What is the meaning of life at all? To what purpose is it played, this farce in which everything that is essential is irrevocably fixed and determined? It is played that a man may come to understand himself, that he may see what it is that he seeks and has sought to be; what he wants, and what, therefore, he is. This is a knowledge which must be im

is difficult to keep quiet if you have nothing to do.

well. * * * * * The Aristotelian principle of keeping the mean

he was a deliberate and diligent searcher after truth, always striving to attain the heart of things, to arrive at a knowledge of first principles.

race, which all physical and historical data confirm as

True brevity of expression consists in a man only saying what is worth saying, while avoiding all diffuse explanations of things which every one can think out for himself; that is, it consists in his correctly distinguishing between what is necessary and what is superfluous.

Xenophon's remark: he must be a wise man who knows what is wise.

change alone endures.