On the Genealogy of Morals

by

Friedrich Nietzsche

Arthur Schopenhauer Character Analysis

Schopenhauer is a German philosopher who believes that all reality and existence is underpinned by a relentless, exhausting, striving sensation that he calls the “will.” Schopenhauer thinks that of all the arts, music comes closest to capturing this sensation, because it isn’t cluttered with static visual phenomena and it’s always moving forward. Schopenhauer is a pessimist, because he thinks that the constant striving of the will makes life miserable. To Schopenhauer, the only time a person can get some relief from life’s exhausting willing sensation is when they look at art, because he finds the experience is calming and absorbing. Nietzsche thinks that Schopenhauer is just personally frustrated and generalizes too much from his own subjective experience.

Arthur Schopenhauer Quotes in On the Genealogy of Morals

The On the Genealogy of Morals quotes below are all either spoken by Arthur Schopenhauer or refer to Arthur Schopenhauer . For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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).
Preface Quotes

Let us express this new demand: we need a critique of moral values; the value of these values is for the first time to be called into question—and for this purpose it is necessary to know the conditions and circumstances under which these values grew, evolved and changed[.]

Related Characters: Friedrich Nietzsche (speaker), Arthur Schopenhauer , Dr. Paul Ree
Page Number: 8
Explanation and Analysis:
What Do Ascetic Ideals Mean? Quotes

What is the meaning of ascetic ideals?

Related Characters: Friedrich Nietzsche (speaker), Ascetic priest, Richard Wagner , Arthur Schopenhauer , Immanuel Kant
Page Number: 83
Explanation and Analysis:

He suddenly realized that more could be effected by the novelty of the Schopenhauerian […] notion of the sovereignty of music, as Schopenhauer understood it; music set apart from and distinguished from all the other arts, music as the independent art-in-itself, not like the other arts, affording images of the phenomenal world, but rather speaking the language of the will itself, straight out of the ‘abyss,’ as its most personal, original and direct manifestation.

Related Characters: Friedrich Nietzsche (speaker), Richard Wagner , Arthur Schopenhauer , Parsifal
Page Number: 89
Explanation and Analysis:

Schopenhauer has described one effect of the beautiful—the calming of the will—but is this effect the usual one?

Related Characters: Friedrich Nietzsche (speaker), Arthur Schopenhauer , Stendhal
Page Number: 91
Explanation and Analysis:

Every animal […] strives instinctively after the most favourable conditions: those under which it can exert its full strength, and experience its greatest feeling of power; every animal also instinctively abhors (and with an acute sense ‘surpassing all reason’) any kind of disruption or hindrance which obstructs or could obstruct his path to this optimum (it is not his way to ‘happiness’ of which I speak, but his path to power, to action, the most powerful action, and in point of fact in many cases his way to misery).

Related Characters: Friedrich Nietzsche (speaker), Arthur Schopenhauer , Immanuel Kant
Page Number: 93
Explanation and Analysis:

We know the three great catch-words of the ascetic ideal: poverty, humility chastity; and if we look closely at the lives of all the great productive, creative intellects, we will find these present again and again, in some measure.

Related Characters: Friedrich Nietzsche (speaker), Arthur Schopenhauer , Immanuel Kant
Page Number: 94
Explanation and Analysis:
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Arthur Schopenhauer Quotes in On the Genealogy of Morals

The On the Genealogy of Morals quotes below are all either spoken by Arthur Schopenhauer or refer to Arthur Schopenhauer . For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Good and Evil Theme Icon
).
Preface Quotes

Let us express this new demand: we need a critique of moral values; the value of these values is for the first time to be called into question—and for this purpose it is necessary to know the conditions and circumstances under which these values grew, evolved and changed[.]

Related Characters: Friedrich Nietzsche (speaker), Arthur Schopenhauer , Dr. Paul Ree
Page Number: 8
Explanation and Analysis:
What Do Ascetic Ideals Mean? Quotes

What is the meaning of ascetic ideals?

Related Characters: Friedrich Nietzsche (speaker), Ascetic priest, Richard Wagner , Arthur Schopenhauer , Immanuel Kant
Page Number: 83
Explanation and Analysis:

He suddenly realized that more could be effected by the novelty of the Schopenhauerian […] notion of the sovereignty of music, as Schopenhauer understood it; music set apart from and distinguished from all the other arts, music as the independent art-in-itself, not like the other arts, affording images of the phenomenal world, but rather speaking the language of the will itself, straight out of the ‘abyss,’ as its most personal, original and direct manifestation.

Related Characters: Friedrich Nietzsche (speaker), Richard Wagner , Arthur Schopenhauer , Parsifal
Page Number: 89
Explanation and Analysis:

Schopenhauer has described one effect of the beautiful—the calming of the will—but is this effect the usual one?

Related Characters: Friedrich Nietzsche (speaker), Arthur Schopenhauer , Stendhal
Page Number: 91
Explanation and Analysis:

Every animal […] strives instinctively after the most favourable conditions: those under which it can exert its full strength, and experience its greatest feeling of power; every animal also instinctively abhors (and with an acute sense ‘surpassing all reason’) any kind of disruption or hindrance which obstructs or could obstruct his path to this optimum (it is not his way to ‘happiness’ of which I speak, but his path to power, to action, the most powerful action, and in point of fact in many cases his way to misery).

Related Characters: Friedrich Nietzsche (speaker), Arthur Schopenhauer , Immanuel Kant
Page Number: 93
Explanation and Analysis:

We know the three great catch-words of the ascetic ideal: poverty, humility chastity; and if we look closely at the lives of all the great productive, creative intellects, we will find these present again and again, in some measure.

Related Characters: Friedrich Nietzsche (speaker), Arthur Schopenhauer , Immanuel Kant
Page Number: 94
Explanation and Analysis: