00:02 Arthur Schopenhauer argues that suffering is the direct and immediate object of life. It is absurd to look upon the enormous amount of pain that abounds everywhere in the world as serving no purpose at all and the result of mere chance. 01:24 Trends Letters Note: confer fee owed Section 153 Live Notes argued that evil is a negative quality and that cold is only the absence of the power of heat. 02:10 Happiness and satisfaction always imply some desire is fulfilled, and some pain ends. The best consolation in misfortune or affliction is the thought of others in a worse plight than yourself. 03:17 In our good days, we're all unconscious of the evil fate that may have presently in store for us, but time is always pressing upon us, and if it stays its hand, it's only when we are delivered over to the misery of boredom. But misfortune has its uses. 04:42 How would people occupy their lives if all wishes were fulfilled as soon as they arose? They would either die of boredom or hang themselves, or there would be Wars, massacres, and murders, so humanity would inflict more suffering on itself than it has now to accept. 05:49 It is wrong today; it will be worse tomorrow, and so on till the worst of all, if the Sun could call forth the phenomena of life on the earth as little as on the moon. 06:21 The longer you live, the more clearly you will feel that life is a disappointment, nay, a cheat. If two men who were friends in their youth meet again, they will feel disappointment in life. 07:17 He who lives to see two or three generations is like a conjurer who performs tricks twice or thrice in succession. 07:37 There are countless numbers whose fate is to be deplored, and if children were brought into the world by an act of pure reason alone, would a man not spare at the burden of existence? 08:12 I shall be told that my philosophy is comfortless because I speak the truth, and people prefer to be assured that everything the Lord has made is good. Go to the priests and leave philosophers in peace. 08:49 Every state of welfare, every feeling of satisfaction, is harmful in its character, and the happier an animal is, the more it has been free from positive evil. 09:15 Human happiness and misery are based on bodily pleasure or bodily pain. The man is not much better off than the brute regarding absolute physical pleasure, except insofar as his nervous system makes him more sensitive to pleasure and pain. 10:25 The chief source of all man's passions is his thought for the absent and future, which affects him much more deeply than present joys and sufferings. 10:51 Man possesses a machine for condensing and storing his pleasures and sorrows, but the brute has nothing. Man's reflection develops his susceptibility to happiness and misery to such a degree. 11:45 Man has intentionally added to the number and pressure of his needs, which has led to luxury in all its forms, the use of tobacco and opium, spirits, liquors, fine clothes, and a thousand and one other things that he considers necessary to his existence. 12:52 Boredom is a form of suffering unknown to brutes, and it has become a downright scourge in the case of Man. The crowd of miserable wretches whose one aim and life is to fill their presses but never to put anything into their heads offers a singular instance of this torment. 13:57 A man is committed to a sexual relationship with one person, and this love grows into a passion, causing little pleasure and much suffering. The pains of life are made worse for man because death is authentic to him. 15:00 The brute flies from death instinctively without knowing what it is, while men make the so-called natural rule to which there are a good many exceptions. 15:30 Man attains the natural term of years just as seldom as the brute because of the unnatural way he lives. 15:51 The brute is much more content with mere existence than man and finds satisfaction in it just in proportion as he is dull and obtuse. The life of the brute carries less sorrow with it and less joy. 16:38 The brute is free from care and hope because its consciousness is limited to the present moment, but elements of fear and hope exist in its nature. 17:10 Brutes show real wisdom in enjoying the present moment, whereas we are restless and dissatisfied by our thoughts and cares. Moreover, their enjoyment is not anticipated, so it suffers no deduction, so the true pleasure of the moment comes to at whole and unimpaired. 18:17 The character of the brute to give itself up to the present moment makes us enjoy our domestic pets so much, but man misuses this quality to be more content than we are with mere existence. 18:56 The bird, made to Rove-over half the world, is shut up in a cubic foot there to die a slow death, longing and crying for freedom. 19:23 By taking a very high standpoint, it is possible to justify the sufferings of humanity, but this cannot apply to animals whose sufferings are often considerable, even apart from their agency. So we're forced to ask why and for what purpose does all this torment and agony exist? 20:35 Brahma produced the world by kind of fall or mistake to atone for his folly, and the world became gradually worse and worse by a series of moral errors until it assumed that dismal aspect of Where's Today excellent. 21:37 The Greeks looked upon the world and the gods as the work of a mysterious necessity. Still, Judaism is inferior to any other religious doctrine and presents no trace of any belief in the soul's immortality. 22:31 Even if Lightens' contention that this is the best of all possible worlds were correct, God still should have created something better. 22:50 The misery and imperfection of this world cannot be reconciled with the belief that it is the successful work of an all-wise Allgood and, at the same time, all-powerful being. They are just the facts supporting our authority to view the world as the outcome of our misdeeds. 24:11 I don't believe in the physical connection between the two things but the metaphysical one. The story of the fall is the only metaphysical truth in the Testament, even though it appears as an allegory. 24:59 The Greek idea of ethics enables a man to lead a happy life, while the Hindu notion of ethics is to free and redeem him from life altogether. The Greek and the Christian idea of death are opposed to each other, but each is right. 26:31 Between my ethical system and the philosophy of Europe, the Old Testament represents man under the Dominion of law, while the New Testament declares the law to have failed. 26:58 The spirit of the New Testament is undoubtedly asceticism, which is the denial of the will to live. My philosophy shows the metaphysical foundation of justice and the love of humanity. It points to the goal to which these virtues necessarily lead if they are practiced in perfection simultaneously. 28:11 If you want a safe compass to guide you through life, regard this world as a prison, as the earliest philosopher called it amongst the Christian father shipped origin with praiseworthy courage. This view is further justified by specific objective theories of life. 29:23 Suppose you accustom yourself to the view that life is the consequence of sin and error. In that case, you will cease to look upon all its unpleasant incidents, great and small, sufferings, worries, and misery as anything unusual or irregular. 30:44 This view of life will enable us to contemplate the imperfections of most men and their moral and intellectual deficiencies without surprise, for they are beings conceived and born in sin. 31:21 Pardons the word to all whatever folly men commit, for they are our follies and vices that we behold. Some faults do not lie on the surface, but they exist in the depths of our nature. 32:30 From this point of view, Monsieur Sir Mine Hair should be addressed as my fellow sufferer Sochi, Malayalam companion De Mesa Clay. This puts others in the right light and reminds us of what is essential.

That very first line is probably the greatest thing ever uttered. It's like a baptism from Satan. Absolving you of your lot in life.

Schopenhaur is superb! It's strange how his pessimism makes me laugh and lightens my heart. His love of animals and Eastern thought makes him a real kindred spirit to me.

The greatest thinker since Plato.

Love this, Schopenhauer is my go to for self help.

I always come back to this book and it always makes me laugh of the absurdity of life.

Bravo librivox. I thank you for this benifit to humanity. Plus, now driving is not such a big waste of time

Loved it so true its like he knew what was coming in the decades ahead

My man spits pure facx...

Is suffering a byproduct of evolution?

Aha! Btw The Sanity Machine YT Channel is the Truth!(*_*)

So if a non-existent life and a life in heaven were both equally free from suffering, they'd both be equally negative? While interesting, the evil-as-positive and good-as-negative conception seems false.