The Wisdom of Life

Nineteenth-century German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer championed individual strength of will and independent, reasoned deliberation above the irrational impulses that animated most of society. 


Schopenhauer exerted an influence far beyond the hermetic world of philosophy, with adherents ranging from Richard Wagner and Friedrich Nietzsche to Leo Tolstoy and Thomas Mann.


In his timeless essay The Wisdom of Life, Schopenhauer examines the ways in which life can be arranged to derive the highest degree of pleasure and success. 


Working from the premise that all knowledge derives from our experience of the world but that our experience is necessarily subjective and formed by our own intellect and biases, reality, therefore, is but an extension of our own will. 


ARTHUR SCHOPENHAUER (1788 –1860) was a German philosopher among the first thinkers in Western philosophy to share and affirm significant tenets of Eastern philosophy. Schopenhauer has had an enormous impact across various disciplines, including philosophy, literature, and science. Those who have cited his influence include Friedrich Nietzsche, Richard Wagner, Leo Tolstoy, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Erwin Schrödinger, Otto Rank, Gustav Mahler, Joseph Campbell, Albert Einstein, Carl Jung, Thomas Mann, Emile Zola, George Bernard Shaw, Guy de Maupassant, Jorge Luis Borges and Samuel Beckett among others.