Arthur Schopenhauer
Counsels and Maxims
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Table of contents
INTRODUCTION.
CHAPTER I.
CHAPTER II.
CHAPTER III.
CHAPTER IV,
CHAPTER V.
INTRODUCTION.
If
my object in these pages were to present a complete scheme of
counsels and maxims for the guidance of life, I should have to repeat
the numerous rules—some of them excellent—which have been drawn
up by thinkers of all ages, from Theognis and Solomon[1] down to La
Rochefoucauld; and, in so doing, I should inevitably entail upon the
reader a vast amount of well-worn commonplace. But the fact is that
in this work I make still less claim to exhaust my subject than in
any other of my writings.[Footnote
1: I refer to the proverbs and maxims ascribed, in the OldTestament,
to the king of that name.]An
author who makes no claims to completeness must also, in a great
measure, abandon any attempt at systematic arrangement. For his
double loss in this respect, the reader may console himself by
reflecting that a complete and systematic treatment of such a subject
as the guidance of life could hardly fail to be a very wearisome
business. I have simply put down those of my thoughts which appear to
be worth communicating—thoughts which, as far as I know, have not
been uttered, or, at any rate, not just in the same form, by any one
else; so that my remarks may be taken as a supplement to what has
been already achieved in the immense field.However,
by way of introducing some sort of order into the great variety of
matters upon which advice will be given in the following pages, I
shall distribute what I have to say under the following heads: (1)
general rules; (2) our relation to ourselves; (3) our relation to
others; and finally, (4) rules which concern our manner of life and
our worldly circumstances. I shall conclude with some remarks on the
changes which the various periods of life produce in us.
CHAPTER I.
GENERAL
RULES.—SECTION 1.The
first and foremost rule for the wise conduct of life seems to me to
be contained in a view to which Aristotle parenthetically refers in
the Nichomachean
Ethics:[1] [Greek:
o phronimoz to alupon dioke e ou to aedu] or, as it may be rendered,
not pleasure, but freedom from pain, is what the wise man will aim
at.[Footnote
1: vii. (12) 12.]The
truth of this remark turns upon the negative character of
happiness,—the fact that pleasure is only the negation of pain, and
that pain is the positive element in life. Though I have given a
detailed proof of this proposition in my chief work,[1] I may supply
one more illustration of it here, drawn from a circumstance of daily
occurrence. Suppose that, with the exception of some sore or painful
spot, we are physically in a sound and healthy condition: the sore of
this one spot, will completely absorb our attention, causing us to
lose the sense of general well-being, and destroying all our comfort
in life. In the same way, when all our affairs but one turn out as we
wish, the single instance in which our aims are frustrated is a
constant trouble to us, even though it be something quite trivial. We
think a great deal about it, and very little about those other and
more important matters in which we have been successful. In both
these cases what has met with resistance is
—
Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!
Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!
Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!
Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!
