All the cruelty and torment of which the world is full is in fact merely the necessary result of the totality of the forms under which the will to live is objectified.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- All the cruelty and suffering in the world stem from the way the will to live is expressed through various forms.
- In plain terms
- Suffering comes from how life’s drive is manifested.
- What can you take from it?
- Recognize that desire shapes our experience of pain.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- Do you see desire behind your own suffering?
- Can changing will alter outcomes?
Another view
It reduces complex causes to a single philosophical explanation.
More from Arthur Schopenhauer
Do not shorten the morning by getting up late, or waste it in unworthy occupations or in talk; look upon it as the quintessence of life, as to a certain extent…
Permalink to quote #38 The discovery of truth is prevented more effectively, not by the false appearance things present and which mislead into error, not directly by weakness of the …
Permalink to quote #40 The fundament upon which all our knowledge and learning rests is the inexplicable.
Permalink to quote #37
Related quotes
We are constantly railing against the passions; we ascribe to them all of man's afflictions, and we forget that they are also the source of all his pleasures.
Denis DiderotDenis Diderot quote #33 For some time the entire effort of our philosophers has aimed solely at replacing the notion of human nature with that of situation, and replacing ancient harm…
Albert CamusAlbert Camus quote #130 Man is a creation of desire, not a creation of need.
Gaston BachelardGaston Bachelard quote #1