"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident."
"Virtue is as little to be acquired by learning as genius; nay, the idea is barren, and is only to be employed as an instrument, in the same way as genius in respect to art. It would be as foolish to expect that our moral and ethical systems would turn out virtuous, noble, and holy beings, as that our aesthetic systems would produce poets, painters, and musicians."
6 likes
Source: Arthur Schopenhauer (2013). “Religion From the Essays of Arhur Schopenhauer”, p.54, Simon and Schuster
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."