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It is this vacuity of soul which drives them to intercourse with others (ARTHUR SCHOPENHAUER)

It is this vacuity of soul which drives them to intercourse with others (ARTHUR SCHOPENHAUER)

People are rendered sociable by their ability to endure solitude, that is to say, their own society. They become sick of themselves. It is this vacuity of soul which drives them to intercourse with others,–to travels in foreign countries. Their mind is wanting in elasticity; it has no movement of its own, and so they try to give it some,–by drink, for instance. How much drunkenness is due to this cause alone! They are always looking for some form of excitement, of the strongest kind they can bear–the excitement of being with people of like nature with themselves; and if they fail in this, their mind sinks by its own weight, and they fall into a grievous lethargy. Such people, it may be said, possess only a small fraction of humanity in themselves; and it requires a great many of them put together to make up a fair amount of it, – to attain any degree of consciousness as men. A man, in the full sense of the word, -a man par excellence – does not represent a fraction, but a whole number: he is complete in himself.

 
Ordinary society is, in this respect, very like the kind of music to be obtained from an orchestra composed of Russian horns. Each horn has only one note; and the music is produced by each note coming in just at the right moment. In the monotonous sound of a single horn, you have a precise illustration of the effect of most people’s minds. How often there seems to be only one thought there! and no room for any other. It is easy to see why people are so bored; and also why they are sociable, why they like to go about in crowds – why mankind is so gregarious.
It is the monotony of his own nature that makes a man find solitude intolerable. Omnis stultitia laborat fastidio sui: folly is truly its own burden. Put a great many men together, and you may get some result–some music from your horns!

 

A man of intellect is like an artist who gives a concert without any help from anyone else, playing on a single instrument–a piano, say, which is a little orchestra in itself. Such a man is a little world in
himself; and the effect produced by various instruments together, he produces single-handed, in the unity of his own consciousness. Like the piano, he has no place in a symphony: he is a soloist and performs by himself,–in solitude, it may be; or, if in company with other instruments, only as principal; or for setting the tone, as in singing.

 

 

 
Counsels and Maxims
ARTHUR SCHOPENHAUER



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