Single Idea 21371

[catalogued under 22. Metaethics / C. The Good / 2. Happiness / d. Routes to happiness]

Full Idea

So long as our consciousness is filled by our will, so long as we are given up to the throng of desires with its constant hopes and fears, so long as we are the subject of willing, we never attain lasting happiness or peace.

Gist of Idea

We can never attain happiness while our will is pursuing desires

Source

Arthur Schopenhauer (The World as Will and Idea [1819], I 196), quoted by Christopher Janaway - Schopenhauer 6 'Aesthetic'

Book Reference

Janaway,Christopher: 'Schopenhauer' [OUP 2002], p.71


A Reaction

I hate this idea. It obviously leads to his Buddhism, and the eastern idea that life is generally a bad idea and to be avoided. I think Nietzsche rebelled strongly against this attitude of Schopenhauer's.