When one considers how vast and how close to us is the problem of existence—this equivocal, tortured, fleeting, dream-like existence of ours—so vast and so close that a man no sooner discovers it than it overshadows and obscures all other problems and aims; and when one sees how all men, with few and rare exceptions, have no clear consciousness of the problem, nay, seem to be quite unaware of its presence, but busy themselves with everything rather than with this, and live on, taking no thought but for the passing day and the hardly longer span of their own personal future, either expressly discarding the problem or else over-ready to come to terms with it by adopting some system of popular metaphysics and letting it satisfy them; when, I say, one takes all this to heart, one may come to the opinion that man may be said to be a thinking being only in a very remote sense, and henceforth feel no special surprise at any trait of human thoughtlessness or folly; but know, rather, that the normal man’s intellectual range of vision does indeed extend beyond that of the brute, whose whole existence is, as it were, a continual present, with no consciousness of the past or the future, but not such an immeasurable distance as is generally supposed.
From The Art of Literature by Arthur Schopenhauer.
Biblioklept 
What is the ‘problem’? Starts clearly, middle muddled and premise false at the end. Otherwise, very thoughtful.
LikeLike
There is no problem. Schopenhauer is an unabashed dandy who weaves fantastic scenes, with impressive imagery, peeping grotesque and lurking threat, but gone like a dream. His entire expression could be read as “my troubles with women.” Like all the best philosophers he is really only pretending to be a philosopher: trust fund and time on his hands, part poet, part clown. His perceptiveness is refreshing and inspiring, his literary range inexhaustible. Thanks for this opportunity to think about him, can we have some quotes from the main volumes? I think the best ones are in there.
LikeLike
Oh gosh. I dunno. This is the one I’m reading now and it’s not Too Hard. Is there another one I should read next that’s also Not Too Hard?
LikeLike
Well, he reads pretty. Sometimes the purely decorative position is the artistic one.
LikeLike
Ummm. I think the denser stuff reads prettier. It’s more intense. And it’s not Too Hard, just takes a bit of patience sometimes to get into the idiom. Then you’re away. Lost. Schopped, and gone forever.
LikeLike
Very strange to see someone writing about Schopenhauer. Strange in that he is so good and so ignored. For me he is one of the best prose writer of all times and a sublime thinker.
‘If a God had made this world, I should not like to be that God. The misery in the world would break my heart.’
LikeLike
oh how I love Schopenhauer — I was blogging about him (a bit) this morning, in fact, about the will to exist he explicates so beautifully. I enjoy listening to Schopenhauer on youtube. He’s just so funny! in addition to being brilliant, sardonic, succinct . . . yet again, thanks for posting.
LikeLike
Thank you for explaining him to me, Philip. Kind of a Fop? I vaguely recall his name from Philo. 101, but had the impression that he was a heavy weight of Western thought. After I read Biblioklept’s quote, I tried to find some smart ass remark about him in Bertram Russell, but didn’t see any thing. He’s to thinking as soft rock is to R&R. A Yanni or a Blue Man? Somehow, most of the big rigs of philosophy seem Victorian. Pre-particle physics and Eastern mind science.
LikeLike
This is one of the funniest things I have ever read. Schopes is a hoot.
LikeLike
LOL at “Schopes.” It reads like a passage from Bernhard.
LikeLike
The best Schopenhauer quote I’ve found, so far, is, ‘Just remember, once you are over the hill, you begin to pick up speed’. Whatever. Well, hoo haa! I am laughing so hard people are staring at me.
LikeLike
Schopenhauer is my God! He’s such a cutie! Luv ya big Schopey! You go guy, go!
LikeLike