“ The greatest evil, the worst that can anywhere threaten, is death; the greatest fear is the fear of death. ”
Arthur Schopenhauer, The World as Will and Representation (1819). copy citation
Author | Arthur Schopenhauer |
---|---|
Source | The World as Will and Representation |
Topic | death evil |
Date | 1819 |
Language | English |
Reference | |
Note | Translated by R. B. Haldane and J. Kemp |
Weblink | http://www.gutenberg.org/files/40868/40868-h/40868-h.html |
Context
“Why does the brute flee, trembling, and seek to conceal itself? Because it is simply the will to live, but, as such, is forfeited to death, and wishes to gain time. Such also, by nature, is man. [pg 252] The greatest evil, the worst that can anywhere threaten, is death; the greatest fear is the fear of death. Nothing excites us so irresistibly to the most lively interest as danger to the life of others; nothing is so shocking as an execution. Now the boundless attachment to life which appears here cannot have sprung from knowledge and reflection;”
source