A man who has no mental needs, because his intellect is of the narrow and normal amount, is, in the strict sense of the word, what is called a philis… - Arthur Schopenhauer

We forfeit three-fourths of ourselves in order to be like other people.

Allerdings ist das Leben nicht eigentlich da, um genossen, sondern um überstanden, abgethan zu werden...

The scenes in our life resemble pictures in a rough mosaic; they are ineffective from close up, and have to be viewed from a distance if they are to seem beautiful. That is why to attain something desired is to discover how vain it is; and why, though we live all our lives in expectation of better things, we often at the same time long regretfully for what is past. The present, on the other hand, is regarded as something quite temporary and serving as the only road to our goal. That is why most men discover when they look back on their life that they have been living the whole time ad interim, and are surprised to see that which they let go by so unregarded and unenjoyed was precisely their life, was precisely that in expectation of which they lived.