- Lived:
- 1788–1860 · Danzig, Hamburg, Weimar, Berlin, and finally Frankfurt
- Tradition:
- German philosophy after Kant; the great pessimist, and the first Western philosopher to build a bridge to India
- The Big Idea:
- Beneath the orderly world of appearances there is one blind, striving force — the Will — and because we are that force, life is endless craving that can never be finally satisfied.
- In their words:
- "Life swings like a pendulum backward and forward between pain and boredom."
- If you remember one thing:
- He looked at the same world as everyone else and asked the forbidden question — what if existence itself doesn't pay? — and then, astonishingly, offered exits: art, compassion, and letting go.