"The art of not reading is a very important one. You can see they are writing simply in order to cover paper: and as soon as you do see it you should throw the book down, for time is precious." "There are above all two kinds of writer: those who write for the sake of what they have to say, and those who write for the sake of writing. For a writer to afford enjoyment always demands a certain harmony between his way of thinking and that of the reader and the enjoyment will be the greater the more perfect this harmony is." "All genuine Thought and Art is to a certain extent an attempt to put big heads on small people: so it is no wonder the attempt does not always come off. only the masterpieces are enjoyable and everything mediocre is unendurable."
This is all you will need to have a rich appreciation for one of the most lucid and influential philosophers in the Western tradition. Hollindale provides an introduction which includes a mini-history of philosophy leading up to Schopenhauer, the cultural, literary and social context of Germany in the nineteenth century, as well as a mini-biography of Schopenhauer. If you are new to Schopenhauer or philosophy, R. But many a thorn without a rose." Even if you don't agree, you have to admire a brilliant, memorable metaphor. One more quote, this one capsulizing Schopenhauer's famous pessimistic view of life: "No rose without a thorn. When I see how much these well-informed people know, I sometimes say to myself: Oh, how little such a one must have had to think about, since he has had so much time for reading!" The truth of this statement is compounded with the omnipresence of the internet. They make it a point of honor to have information about everything. Here is a quote that is especially appropriate to our current age of information: "Students and learned men of every kind and every ago go as a rule in search of information, not insight. Here is what he has to say on opera: "Strictly speaking one could call opera an unmusical invention for the benefit of unmusical minds." For anybody with a keen interest in listening to music, these words have a very honest ring. As always, Schopenhauer never dances around an issue but goes right to the heart of the matter and tells it like it is. Those who put together difficult, obscure, involved, ambiguous discourses do not really know what they want to say: they have no more than a vague consciousness of it which is only struggling towards a thought often, however, they also want to conceal from themselves and others that they actually have nothing to say." Keep this in mind the next time you read an incomprehensible piece of writing - in truth, the burden is on the writer to make their thoughts clear, no matter how impressive the author's credentials.Īmong the topics address is aesthetics.
On the topic of books and writing, here is a quote which is vintage Schopenhauer: "The thoughts a man is capable of always express themselves in clear, comprehensible and unambiguous words. What a switch from hopelessly dry, turgid, stale academic philosophy with its endless references, footnotes and qualifications. This book is great literature as well as original philosophy, the writing is so incredibly clear, crystal clear, actually - a straightforward, easy-to-follow, elegant prose.
And this collection is Schopenhauer at his hyper-arrogant best, as self-appointed genius and highbrow aesthete, shooting verbal barbs and passing harsh judgment on everyone and everything in sight - would-be philosophers, journalists, bookworms, scholars, literati, historians, women, among numerous others. Inheriting the family fortune and thus freed from any obligation to work for a living, Schopenhauer became a life-long bachelor and independent scholar, keeping his distance from other people as if they were a colony of doltish, novel-reading lepers.Īnd, thus, after rousing in the morning and before playing the flute, partaking of lunch, and going for his two hour walk with his pet poodle, Schopenhauer sat at his desk, completely dedicating his time to writing.
#THE UNDISTRACTED ONES A BOOK ABOUT PHILOSOPHY MANUAL#
Arthur Schopenhauer wrote his essays and aphorisms in the financial hub city of Frankford, Germany during the mid-nineteenth century, a world where business owners and financiers ruthlessly competed against one another to amass fortunes, clerks chained to their desks toiled twelve hours a day, uneducated day laborers ground themselves down into faceless, mindless cogs of the urban wheel, and upper class ladies strolled the streets with parasols as they chattered incessantly over petty concerns - but, no matter what one's station in life - ruthless financial baron, toiling clerk, chattering lady or manual drudge - the monotonous hum of this bustling society gave few people encouragement or mental space to think independently or reflect philosophically.
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