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What does happiness mean when suffering is part of the question?
In The Essays of Arthur Schopenhauer; Counsels and Maxims, Arthur Schopenhauer explores happiness, suffering, and willpower. These are ideas with a place in everyday life, not just abstract debate. His essays invite you to pause over what you seek, what you endure, and what it means to exercise your will.
This work of philosophy brings those questions together through counsels and maxims. Read for the ideas themselves, or bring your own questions about happiness and suffering to the page. The appeal lies in taking time with difficult subjects rather than looking past them.
What you’ll discover
- The question of happiness Consider happiness as a subject for thought, not simply something to pursue.
- Space to consider suffering Give a difficult part of life the attention that philosophical reflection allows.
- A focus on willpower Explore willpower alongside happiness and suffering, with your own questions in mind.
- Counsels and maxims Meet Schopenhauer through essays that offer ideas to weigh and think through.
- Questions worth returning to Let these themes prompt a closer look at what matters in your life.
Who will love it
Readers who enjoy pointed observations about human behavior will love this book, as will anyone drawn to practical guidance on solitude, friendship, luck and growing older.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Aim at freedom from pain, not at pleasure
- Expect little and keep your wishes few
- Live in the present and keep worries in separate drawers
- Solitude is the safest road to peace of mind
- Accept people as they are and be polite
- Read friends by small things and by how they take bad news
- Luck steers more than skill, so prepare for change
- Each age of life has its own mind and its own gifts
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Los ensayos de Arthur Schopenhauer; Consejos y máximas
by Arthur Schopenhauer · 1851
Schopenhauer says count the pains you avoid, not the pleasures you win, and builds an art of living on it.
Challenging5–10 hours to readEspañol
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In short
Why does a man with a good meal, good company and a bright morning still feel that something is missing? Arthur Schopenhauer answers that the missing thing was never there to be found.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
Aim at freedom from pain, not at pleasure
Schopenhauer opens with a rule he takes from Aristotle. The wise man does not chase pleasure. He looks for freedom from pain. Pain is the positive thing in life, the thing we actually feel. Pleasure is only the moment when an obstacle is taken away.
Imagine a body that is healthy except for one sore spot. That single spot swallows our attention and spoils our whole sense of well-being. Affairs work the same way. If nine things go as we wish and one goes wrong, we brood on the one and forget the nine.
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Which edition is right for me
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas of the whole book in about 14 minutes. A good first look, or a refresher.
Details
- First published
- 1851
- Language
- Español
- Reading time
- 3 h 20 min
- Level
- Challenging
Cite this edition
Schopenhauer, Arthur. The Essays of Arthur Schopenhauer; Counsels and Maxims. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-essays-of-arthur-schopenhauer-counsels-and-maxims.
Schopenhauer, A. (2026). The essays of Arthur Schopenhauer; counsels and maxims. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-essays-of-arthur-schopenhauer-counsels-and-maxims (Original work published 1851)
Schopenhauer, Arthur. The Essays of Arthur Schopenhauer; Counsels and Maxims. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-essays-of-arthur-schopenhauer-counsels-and-maxims.
@book{schopenhauer2026essays,
author = {Schopenhauer, Arthur},
title = {The Essays of Arthur Schopenhauer; Counsels and Maxims},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-essays-of-arthur-schopenhauer-counsels-and-maxims},
note = {First published 1851}
}
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What is Counsels and Maxims about?
It is a collection of practical advice on how to live. Schopenhauer covers happiness, solitude, dealing with people, luck, courage and the changes brought by age, always starting from the idea that avoiding pain matters more than chasing pleasure.
What does Schopenhauer mean by happiness being negative?
He means that pain is felt directly, while pleasure is only the absence of pain or the removal of an obstacle. So a good life is measured by evils escaped and not by pleasures enjoyed.
Is Counsels and Maxims part of a larger work?
It is a separate set of reflections on the wisdom of life, written late in Schopenhauer's career. He says in his preface that he does not aim to be complete or systematic, and he arranges the advice under a few headings.
The author
Arthur Schopenhauer
1788–1860 · German philosopher
Arthur Schopenhauer was a German philosopher born in Danzig, now Gdańsk, in 1788. He lived in Frankfurt from 1833 until his death in 1860. He published The World as Will and Representation in 1818, On the Basis of Morality in 1841, and Parerga and Paralipomena in 1851.
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