The Essays of Arthur Schopenhauer; The Art of Literature

It follows from this that a man's thought varies according to the language in which he speaks. His ideas undergo a fresh modification, a different shading, as it were, in the st...

The reader should study, if he can, the real authors, the men who have founded and discovered things; or, at any rate, those who are recognized as the great masters in every bra...

The thinker stands in the same relation to the ordinary book-philosopher as an eye-witness does to the historian; he speaks from direct knowledge of his own. That is why all tho...

The contents of this, as of the other volumes in the series, have been drawn from Schopenhauer's _Parerga_, and amongst the various subjects dealt with in that famous collection...

Even Rousseau, in the preface to the _Nouvelle Heloïse_, declares _tout honnête homme doit avouer les livres qu'il public_; which in plain language means that every honorable ma...

There is no expression in any other language exactly answering to the French _stile empesé_; but the thing itself exists all the more often. When associated with affectation, it...

As regards _reading_, to require that a man shall retain everything he has ever read, is like asking him to carry about with him all he has ever eaten. The one kind of food has...

The effectiveness of an author turns chiefly upon his getting the reputation that he should be read. But by practicing various arts, by the operation of chance, and by certain n...

He who wishes to experience gratitude from his contemporaries, must adjust his pace to theirs. But great things are never produced in this way. And he who wants to do great thin...