We can come to look upon the deaths of our enemies with as much regret as we feel for those of our friends, namely, when we miss their existence as witnesses to our success.
Arthur SchopenhauerRead
Patriotism, when it wants to make itself felt in the domain of learning, is a dirty fellow who should be thrown out of doors.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote criticizes the influence of patriotism on education and intellectual freedom.
Schopenhauer argues that patriotism, when applied to the pursuit of knowledge, becomes a negative force that hinders open-mindedness and critical thinking. He suggests that such a form of nationalism in academia should be rejected, as it corrupts the integrity of learning and inquiry.
Themes
PatriotismLearningEducationNationalismFreedom
In practice
Example use cases
In a lecture on ethics, one might cite this quote to illustrate the dangers of allowing nationalism to influence scientific progress.
More from Arthur Schopenhauer
All quotes →To be shocked at how deeply rejection hurts is to ignore what acceptance involves. We must never allow our suffering to be compounded by suggestions that there is something odd in suffering so deeply. There would be something amiss if we didn't.
Arthur SchopenhauerRead
Almost all of our sorrows spring out of our relations with other people.
Arthur SchopenhauerRead
Life is full of troubles and vexations, that one must either rise above it by means of corrected thoughts, or leave it.
Arthur SchopenhauerRead
Our religions will never at any time take root; the ancient wisdom of the human race will not be supplanted by the events in Galilee. On the contrary, Indian wisdom flows back to Europe, and will produce a fundamental change in our knowledge and thought.
Arthur SchopenhauerRead
We will gradually become indifferent to what goes on in the minds of other people when we acquire a knowledge of the superficial nature of their thoughts, the narrowness of their views and of the number of their errors. Whoever attaches a lot of value to the opinions of others pays them too much honor.
Arthur SchopenhauerRead
Similar quotes
A tough but nervous, tenacious but restless race [the Yankees]; materially ambitious, yet prone to introspection, and subject to waves of religious emotion. . . . A race whose typical member is eternally torn between a passion for righteousness and a desire to get on in the world.
Samuel Eliot MorisonRead
Be Charitable before wealth make thee covetous, and loose not the glory of the Mite.
Thomas BrowneRead
It is better to put on the brakes sooner, for some fine day you begin to understand — to pardon everything — and then where is the charm of life, if you cannot love or hate any more?
Arthur SchnitzlerRead
Worth seeing, yes; but not worth going to see.
Samuel JohnsonRead
The public have an insatiable curiosity to know everything, except what is worth knowing.
Oscar WildeRead
There has never been a truly selfless rebel, just hypocrites—conscious hypocrites or unconscious hypocrites, it’s all the same.
Frank HerbertRead