“If you don’t break your own thoughts,
Life doesn't move forward even one step from where it is now.”

Between happiness and unhappiness,
Schopenhauer Essentials 51: Sharply Penetrating the Darkest Cracks

★★★★★ The 20 most read books by Seoul National University students
The longest-running bestseller in the humanities
The sequel to "Why Do You Think Your Life Shouldn't Be Hard?"

Schopenhauer, a philosopher admired by Nietzsche, engrossed by Freud, and revered by Tolstoy, and called the intellect of intellects, remains a symbolic figure in the history of Western philosophy.
This time, a book titled "Schopenhauer, Awaken Me," which compiles his deep thoughts on life and excerpts from his representative works written in his later years, has been published.
Schopenhauer is known as a pessimist, but he is not a philosopher who simply justifies the misery of life.
Rather, he persistently pondered 'how to live' in the existential condition of suffering until the end of his life.
Perhaps that is why, in this age where reason is shrinking and, paradoxically, material abundance is increasing while the mind is becoming more impoverished, it is receiving attention again, even after hundreds of years.


Often, when life is difficult or things are not going well, we tend to chew on or offer words of encouragement and support like, "It will be okay," or "It will be okay." However, there comes a time when such comfort is no help to everyone.
The world is changing so quickly, and it feels like I've been working hard, but I feel like I'm just standing still, and I'm too afraid to make new choices.
Because now I have reached a point where I can clearly feel the weight of my own life that I must take responsibility for.
What is needed at such times is not warm comfort or encouragement, but rather a sharp sentence that makes us face reality head on.
Schopenhauer's sentences pierce the darkest gap between happiness and unhappiness.
Each and every one of those sharp lines will completely awaken you to who you are now.
For those who wish to confront the essence of life head-on and live without turning a blind eye to suffering, this book will serve as a strong voice in the loneliest moments.

I found solace in classical figures, not in others.
Thinkers like Pythagoras and Epictetus were all people who listened to their inner selves.
I consoled myself with the words they left behind.
I have always considered myself sufficiently knowledgeable, even if the world does not recognize me.
In fact, it took me a long time to believe that truth does not exist in the applause of others.
People often feel that their dignity has been damaged when they lose their honor.
But protecting one's honor is only about protecting the eyes of others, and has nothing to do with one's true self.
Fame is sometimes not achieved in one's lifetime.
They can be forgotten at any time depending on the flow of time, and sometimes they are evaluated only after death.
The writers I admired, those who spoke the truth through their writing, transcended their time and survived through all ages.
But most of them were poor and neglected during their lifetime.

So I started talking about 'nothingness'.
The fullness of nothingness.
A state of having nothing but not feeling lacking, and a state of wanting nothing but not feeling hungry.
To get there, inner independence and spiritual richness are essential.
I truly wanted to become someone who could endure without receiving anything from outside, someone who could live without external recognition.
I've tried to live like that so far.
Actually, I turned down a lot of things.
He turned his back on fame, wealth, social standing, and academic standing.
I had a room to write in, a path to walk on, and a reason to keep silent, and that alone was enough for me.
I didn't consider that kind of life miserable.
Rather, I believed that there was true nobility in it.
I didn't get public acclaim, but that didn't make me miserable.
This is the true life I am talking about.
A life that denies happiness, yet finds deep peace through that denial.
I have no doubt that this is the ultimate life.

--- p.18~19

A brilliant mind can never mingle with the majority.
It's like clear water refusing to mix with muddy water.
Rather than finding solace in worldly relationships, they choose to fortify themselves through suffering alone.
The world judges them as cold and rude, but the truth is quite the opposite.
This is because they are people who have chosen to carefully reject even the intimacy of others so as not to tarnish the nobility they possess.
Sometimes people ask:
Why do some people willingly accept pain, and endure it as if it were their natural tendency?
But this is not instinct.
It is simply a way of life chosen by those who have already realized the absurdity of life in order to endure that insight.
In other words, suffering is the only relationship a superior spirit has with the world, and it is the proof that he is moving towards truth.

--- p.52

Those who have seen through the lens of the truth that the essence of life is suffering will choose suffering over pleasure at every moment of choice.
For him, pain cannot be avoided.
Because it is a passage to reach the truth of existence and a mirror that most sharply reveals the true nature of the human creature.
Such people endure the conflicts of their youth as they grow older.
And as time passes, their inner selves become stronger with the wisdom of silence.
The body deteriorates, desires wear out, and conflicts with others become increasingly meaningless.
After the age of 60, people become increasingly insensitive to external stimuli, but their inner calm becomes more solid.
This hardness is perhaps the true form of wisdom that a person can acquire as he ages.
Only when we realize that the anger and conflict, the longing and excitement of youth were nothing more than biological noise, are we finally ready to face the true nature of life.

--- p.54

An intellectual life is not hindered by any inherent destiny, such as economic circumstances, freedom of occupation, or social status.
Thus, through an intelligent life, man can be liberated from the changes that determine his destiny.
This intellectual life is sustained through thinking, learning, exploration, and training, and as this life gradually becomes established as the most important foundation of life, physical life becomes subordinated to the intellectual life as a tool for achieving a purpose.
We can see in Goethe an example of how intellectual life is a completely separate life from physical life.
Despite the turmoil and chaos of the war, he continued to study color theory, a field he had always been interested in.
At the time, Goethe was staying in a small town in Luxembourg to escape the chaos, and he later confessed that the only friend who comforted him there was a notebook of color theory spread out on a small desk.
In this way, Goethe showed an example of life that everyone should follow.

As the salt of the earth, humans need a mental state that can always maintain an intellectual life even if their physical life is subject to the storms of the world.
We must also always keep in mind that we are not the product of the handmaiden called the body, but of the free spirit.
We are a lonely tree, quietly fluttering its leaves and fruit on a storm-swept hill.
I would like to add a line to this lonely pattern.
“While I was torn like this, they ripened” or “We suffered terribly, yet we bore fruit.”

--- p.97~98