The Essays of Arthur Schopenhauer: the Wisdom of Life by Arthur Schopenhauer
page 29 of 124 (23%)
page 29 of 124 (23%)
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money, or the favor and applause of his fellowmen, into surrendering
himself in order to conform to low desires and vulgar tastes; nay, in such a case he will follow the advice that Horace gives in his epistle to Maecenas.[3] [Footnote 1: _Vie de Descartes_, par Baillet. Liv. vii., ch. 10.] [Footnote 2: vii. 12.] [Footnote 3: Lib. 1., ep. 7.] _Nec somnum plebis laudo, satur altilium, nec Otia divitiis Arabum liberrima muto_. It is a great piece of folly to sacrifice the inner for the outer man, to give the whole or the greater part of one's quiet, leisure and independence for splendor, rank, pomp, titles and honor. This is what Goethe did. My good luck drew me quite in the other direction. The truth which I am insisting upon here, the truth, namely, that the chief source of human happiness is internal, is confirmed by that most accurate observation of Aristotle in the _Nichomachean Ethics_[1] that every pleasure presupposes some sort of activity, the application of some sort of power, without which it cannot exist. The doctrine of Aristotle's, that a man's happiness consists in the free exercise of his highest faculties, is also enunciated by Stobaeus in his exposition of the Peripatetic philosophy[2]: _happiness_, he says, _means vigorous and successful activity in all your undertakings_; and he explains that by _vigor [Greek: aretae]_ he means _mastery_ in any thing, whatever it be. Now, the original purpose of those forces with |
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