"The measure of his possible happiness is determined beforehand by his individuality. In particular, the limits of his mental powers have fixed once for all his capacity for pleasures of a higher order. If those powers are small, all the efforts from without, everything done for him by mankind or good fortune, will not enable him to rise above the ordinary half-animal human happiness and comfort. He is left to depend on the pleasures of the senses, on a cosy and cheerful family life, on low company and vulgar pastimes. Even education, on the whole, cannot do very much, if anything, to broaden his horizon. For the highest, most varied, and most permanent pleasures depend mainly on intimate mental powers. Therefore it is clear from this how much our happiness depends on what we are, our individuality, whereas in most cases we take into account only our fate, only what we have or represent. Fate, however, can improve; moreover, if we are inwardly wealthy we shall not demand much from it. On the other hand, a fool remains a fool, a dull blockhead a dull blockhead, till the end of his life, even if he were surrounded by houris in paradise."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Arthur Schopenhauer, “Aphorisms on the Wisdom of Life,” Parerga und Paralipomena, E. Payne, trans. (1974) Vol. 1, p. 317
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Hedonism
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Hedonism
50 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Hedonism →
Related Quotes
"He who on conviction does and pursues and chooses what is pleasant would be thought to be better than one who does so…"
"Then let him enjoy much good in this world, that he may not behold the abiding-place of the Lord in the world to come."
"Be not content with your high station, for worldly honors are but for a time."
"Has it ever occurred to you, Euthydemus, ... that though pleasure is the one and only goal to which incontinence is t…"
"It is essential to every inquiry about duty that we keep before our eyes how far superior man is by nature to cattle …"
"Bodily pleasure is unworthy of man’s superior endowments, and ought to be despised and spurned; and if there be any o…"
"All of us once lived among them in the passions of our flesh, following the desires of flesh and senses, and we were …"
"You have given yourself up to each of [the senses] to be made use of… and you have become… the property of [the sense…"
"Moses … denied to the members of the sacred commonwealth unrestricted liberty to use and partake of the other kinds o…"
"The ungodly ... reasoned unsoundly, saying to themselves,... we were born by mere chance, and hereafter we shall be a…"