“All striving comes from lack, from a dissatisfaction with one's condition, and is thus suffering as long as it is not satisfied; but no satisfaction is lasting; instead, it is only the beginning of a new striving. We see striving everywhere inhibited in many ways, struggling everywhere; and thus always suffering; there is no final goal of striving, and therefore no bounds or end to suffering.”

German philosopher and writer

Arthur Schopenhauer was a German philosopher and writer. Active in the 19th century, he is often called the “Philosopher of Pessimism.” He is best known for his 1818 book The World as Will and Representation. In that work, Schopenhauer presents the visible world as a expression of a blind, irrational will beneath appearances. He built his philosophy on Kant’s transcendental idealism, then shaped it into an atheistic system of metaphysics and ethics that stood against the German idealism of his time.