"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident."
"I observed once to Goethe that when a friend is with us we do not think the same of him as when he is away. He replied, "Yes! because the absent friend is yourself, and he exists only in your head; whereas the friend who is present has an individuality of his own, and moves according to laws of his own, which cannot always be in accordance with those which you form for yourself."
7 likes
Source: Arthur Schopenhauer (1896). “The Art of Controversy: And Other Posthumous Papers”
About the author
Same author
More quotes by Arthur Schopenhauer
"It is difficult to find happiness within oneself, but it is impossible to find it anywhere else."
"The majority of men... are not capable of thinking, but only of believing, and... are not accessible to reason, but only to authority."
"A man can be himself only so long as he is alone; and if he does not love solitude, he will not love freedom; for it is only when he is alone that he is really free."
"Talent hits a target no one else can hit; Genius hits a target no one else can see."
"The real meaning of persona is a mask, such as actors were accustomed to wear on the ancient stage; and it is quite true that no one shows himself as he is, but wears his mask and plays his part. Indeed, the whole of our social arrangements may be likened to a perpetual comedy; and this is why a man who is worth anything finds society so insipid, while a blockhead is quite at home in it."