The Wisdom of Life
Ratings3
Average rating4.2
15
Ratings3
Average rating4.2
Nineteenth-century German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860) championed individual strength of will and independent, reasoned deliberation above the irrational impulses that animated most of society. In *The Wisdom of Life*, taken from his last work, *Parerga und Paralipomena* (1851), he discusses how to order our lives to obtain the greatest amount of pleasure and success; then he offers guidelines for living life to its fullest. But for Schopenhauer a life well lived should always reach beyond itself to a higher plane.
Reviews with the most likes.
This packs a good punch, not in the sense that honour was discussed and all, but it's just well written! This talks about fame and wealth in a way which seems reasonable to me from what I have seen performing poetry. A lot of encounters I had with people reappeared in my mind's eye while reading. It is so weird how most people seek false reflections of true values and whatever false reflections I myself have chased in the past I feel deeply ashamed of. I believed a certain amount of lies from others myself, but I would attribute it to ignorance and lack of understanding that others don't mean well.
This one was weirdly not that pessimistic which I sorta wanted lol. The preface was terrible, using the word “manly” to make Schopenhauer seem more valid. Some of his views and discussions are not very topical and Schopenhauer does possess some casual racism, well it was one line.
I really want to take some things written to heart even though they are hard pills to swallow. Society would look very different though if it was based on anything proper so maybe it would be even harder to ignore tbh. This is a book where the author just basically insults the people and their ways and he is not wrong really...
I love how philosophy books are like self-help books, but better and with more integrity. In a way I feel like I have been hearing thoughts like in this book all over the place lately, but this tied them to the emergence of the church and its damage.
