9 Arthur Schopenhauer Quotes That Are Actually Depressing and Will Demotivate You
Not every quote is meant to lift your spirits-some
are brutally honest about life’s darker side.
Arthur Schopenhauer, known as a philosophical pessimist,
didn’t shy away from sharing his bleak views on existence, happiness,
and human nature.
His words can feel heavy, even discouraging,
but they also offer a raw look at the struggles
and disappointments that many people face.
If you’re curious about the more somber side of philosophy,
here are 9 Schopenhauer quotes that are actually depressing and might just take the wind out of your sails.
1. “Life swings like a pendulum backward and forward between pain and boredom.”
(Essays and Aphorisms)
A bleak reminder that existence is either suffering
or the dull ache of monotony.
2. “The life of every individual, viewed as a whole and in general, is really a tragedy; but gone through in detail, it has the character of a comedy.”
(The World as Will and Representation)
Life is so absurdly miserable that if you zoom in,
it becomes darkly comedic.
3. “Human life must be some kind of mistake. The truth of this will be sufficiently obvious if we only remember that man is a compound of needs which are hard to satisfy; that their satisfaction achieves nothing but a painless condition in which he is only given over to boredom.”
(Studies in Pessimism)
Existence is an error, and even when we escape suffering,
we’re left with emptiness.
4. “We can regard our life as a uselessly disturbing episode in the blissful repose of nothingness.”
(Essays and Aphorisms)
The universe was perfectly fine before we existed,
and it’ll be fine after we’re gone.
5. “The happiness which we receive from ourselves is greater than that which we obtain from our surroundings. The world in which a person lives shapes itself chiefly by the way in which they look at it.”
(The Wisdom of Life)
A rare “positive” note, but still depressing:
happiness is an illusion you create to cope.
6. “Every possession and every happiness is but lent by chance for an uncertain time, and may therefore be demanded back the next hour.”
(Essays and Aphorisms)
Nothing lasts,
and everything you love will be taken from you eventually.
7. “After your death, you will be what you were before your birth.”
(The World as Will and Representation)
A cold reminder that oblivion awaits us all,
just as it did before we existed.
8. “The more a man has in himself, the less he will want from others.”
(The Wisdom of Life)
Solitude is the only escape,
but most people are too dull to enjoy their own company.
9. “Hope is the confusion of the desire for a thing with its probability.”
(Essays and Aphorisms)
Hope is just self-deception,
a trick the mind plays to keep us suffering longer.
I am glad you made it this far.
A personal message from me is to never take Arthur words seriously
because life can be bright on the other side.
Believe in yourself and in the bright side of life.
Also, read: 9 Friedrich Nietzsche Quotes That Will Help You Discover Your Superhuman Powers
