The Essays of Arthur Schopenhauer; Counsels and Maxims

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Arthur Schopenhauer

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197

pages

English

Documents

2010

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08 décembre 2010

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English

The Project Gutenberg EBook of Counsels and Maxims, by Arthur Schopenhauer
This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it,
give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at
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Title: Counsels and Maxims From The Essays Of Arthur Schopenhauer
Author: Arthur Schopenhauer
Release Date: January 14, 2004 [EBook #10715]
Language: English
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK COUNSELS AND MAXIMS ***
Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Josephine Paolucci and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team.
THE ESSAYS
OF
ARTHUR SCHOPENHAUER
TRANSLATED BY
T. BAILEY SAUNDERS, M.A.COUNSELS AND MAXIMS.
Le bonheur n'est pas chose aisée: il est très difficile de le trouver en nous, et impossible de le trouver ailleurs.
CHAMFORT.CONTENTS.
CHAPTER
INTRODUCTION I. GENERAL RULES II. OUR RELATION TO OURSELVES III. OUR RELATION TO OTHERS IV. WORLDLY FORTUNE V. THE AGES OF LIFEINTRODUCTION.
If my object in these pages were to present a complete scheme of counsels and maxims for the guidance of life, I should
have to repeat the numerous rules—some of them excellent—which have been drawn up by thinkers of all ages, from
Theognis and Solomon[1] down to La Rochefoucauld; and, in so doing, I should inevitably entail upon the reader a vast
amount of well-worn commonplace. But the fact is that in this work I make still less claim to exhaust my subject than in ...

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Publié par

nushog

Publié le

08 décembre 2010

Nombre de lectures

Langue

English

THE ESSAYSOFARTHUR SCHOPENHAUERTRANSLATED BYT. BAILEY SAUNDERS, M.A.

COUNSELS AND MAXIMS.Le bonheur n'est pas chose aisée: il est trèsdifficile de le trouver en nous, et impossible de letrouver ailleurs.CHAMFORT.

CONTENTS.CHAPTERINTRODUCTION I. GENERAL RULES II. OURRELATION TO OURSELVES III. OUR RELATIONTO OTHERS IV. WORLDLY FORTUNE V. THEAGES OF LIFE

INTRODUCTION.If my object in these pages were to present acomplete scheme of counsels and maxims for theguidance of life, I should have to repeat thenumerous rules—some of them excellent—whichhave been drawn up by thinkers of all ages, fromTheognis and Solomon[1] down to LaRochefoucauld; and, in so doing, I should inevitablyentail upon the reader a vast amount of well-worncommonplace. But the fact is that in this work Imake still less claim to exhaust my subject than inany other of my writings.[Footnote 1: I refer to the proverbs and maximsascribed, in the OldTestament, to the king of that name.]An author who makes no claims to completenessmust also, in a great measure, abandon anyattempt at systematic arrangement. For his doubleloss in this respect, the reader may console himselfby reflecting that a complete and systematictreatment of such a subject as the guidance of lifecould hardly fail to be a very wearisome business. Ihave simply put down those of my thoughts whichappear to be worth communicating—thoughtswhich, as far as I know, have not been uttered, or,at any rate, not just in the same form, by any oneelse; so that my remarks may be taken as asupplement to what has been already achieved inthe immense field.

However, by way of introducing some sort of orderinto the great variety of matters upon which advicewill be given in the following pages, I shall distributewhat I have to say under the following heads: (1)general rules; (2) our relation to ourselves; (3) ourrelation to others; and finally, (4) rules whichconcern our manner of life and our worldlycircumstances. I shall conclude with some remarkson the changes which the various periods of lifeproduce in us.

CHAPTER I.GENERAL RULES.—SECTION 1.The first and foremost rule for the wise conduct oflife seems to me to be contained in a view to whichAristotle parenthetically refers in theNichomachean Ethics:[1] [Greek: o phronimoz toalupon dioke e ou to aedu] or, as it may berendered, not pleasure, but freedom from pain, iswhat the wise man will aim at.[Footnote 1: vii. (12) 12.]The truth of this remark turns upon the negativecharacter of happiness,—the fact that pleasure isonly the negation of pain, and that pain is thepositive element in life. Though I have given adetailed proof of this proposition in my chiefwork,[1] I may supply one more illustration of ithere, drawn from a circumstance of dailyoccurrence. Suppose that, with the exception ofsome sore or painful spot, we are physically in asound and healthy condition: the sore of this onespot, will completely absorb our attention, causingus to lose the sense of general well-being, anddestroying all our comfort in life. In the same way,when all our affairs but one turn out as we wish,the single instance in which our aims are frustratedis a constant trouble to us, even though it besomething quite trivial. We think a great deal about

it, and very little about those other and moreimportant matters in which we have beensuccessful. In both these cases what has met withresistance is the will; in the one case, as it isobjectified in the organism, in the other, as itpresents itself in the struggle of life; and in both, itis plain that the satisfaction of the will consists innothing else than that it meets with no resistance.It is, therefore, a satisfaction which is not directlyfelt; at most, we can become conscious of it onlywhen we reflect upon our condition. But that whichchecks or arrests the will is something positive; itproclaims its own presence. All pleasure consists inmerely removing this check—in other words, infreeing us from its action; and hence pleasure is astate which can never last very long.[Footnote 1: Welt als Wille und Vorstellung. Vol. I.,p. 58.]This is the true basis of the above excellent rulequoted from Aristotle, which bids us direct our aim,not toward securing what is pleasurable andagreeable in life, but toward avoiding, as far aspossible, its innumerable evils. If this were not theright course to take, that saying of Voltaire's,Happiness is but a dream and sorrow is real, wouldbe as false as it is, in fact, true. A man who desiresto make up the book of his life and determinewhere the balance of happiness lies, must putdown in his accounts, not the pleasures which hehas enjoyed, but the evils which he has escaped.That is the true method of eudaemonology; for alleudaemonology must begin by recognizing that its

very name is a euphemism, and that to live happilyonly means to live less unhappily—to live atolerable life. There is no doubt that life is given us,not to be enjoyed, but to be overcome—to be gotover. There are numerous expressions illustratingthis—such as degere vitam, vita defungi; or inItalian, si scampa cosi; or in German, man musssuchen durchzukommen; er wird schon durch dieWelt kommen, and so on. In old age it is indeed aconsolation to think that the work of life is over anddone with. The happiest lot is not to haveexperienced the keenest delights or the greatestpleasures, but to have brought life to a closewithout any very great pain, bodily or mental. Tomeasure the happiness of a life by its delights orpleasures, is to apply a false standard. Forpleasures are and remain something negative; thatthey produce happiness is a delusion, cherished byenvy to its own punishment. Pain is felt to besomething positive, and hence its absence is thetrue standard of happiness. And if, over and abovefreedom from pain, there is also an absence ofboredom, the essential conditions of earthlyhappiness are attained; for all else is chimerical.It follows from this that a man should never try topurchase pleasure at the cost of pain, or even atthe risk of incurring it; to do so is to pay what ispositive and real, for what is negative and illusory;while there is a net profit in sacrificing pleasure forthe sake of avoiding pain. In either case it is amatter of indifference whether the pain follows thepleasure or precedes it. While it is a completeinversion of the natural order to try and turn this

scene of misery into a garden of pleasure, to aimat joy and pleasure rather than at the greatestpossible freedom from pain—and yet how many doit!—there is some wisdom in taking a gloomy view,in looking upon the world as a kind of Hell, and inconfining one's efforts to securing a little room thatshall not be exposed to the fire. The fool rushesafter the pleasures of life and finds himself theirdupe; the wise man avoids its evils; and even if,notwithstanding his precautions, he falls intomisfortunes, that is the fault of fate, not of his ownfolly. As far as he is successful in his endeavors,he cannot be said to have lived a life of illusion; forthe evils which he shuns are very real. Even if hegoes too far out of his way to avoid evils, andmakes an unnecessary sacrifice of pleasure, he is,in reality, not the worse off for that; for allpleasures are chimerical, and to mourn for havinglost any of them is a frivolous, and even ridiculousproceeding.The failure to recognize this truth—a failurepromoted by optimistic ideas—is the source ofmuch unhappiness. In moments free from pain,our restless wishes present, as it were in a mirror,the image of a happiness that has no counterpartin reality, seducing us to follow it; in doing so webring pain upon ourselves, and that is somethingundeniably real. Afterwards, we come to look withregret upon that lost state of painlessness; it is aparadise which we have gambled away; it is nolonger with us, and we long in vain to undo whathas been done.

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