Schopenhauer Part 1

I have been reading the Schopenhauer essay a friend of mine sent me, and I love it. I have been taking notes, and included them below in case you are curious as to what I am taking out of it.

I still have yet to read past the 'On Style' portion of Schopenhauer's work, but already I appreciate Schopenhauer's thoughts a great deal. Of special note are his comments on simplicity and honesty in a writer -- I have always felt this way, and am glad to see it expressed so. I also enjoyed reading his thoughts on style; but I am still curious how to develop my writing style - it sounds like he says it is inherent in any want-to-be writer?

http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/s/schopenhauer/arthur/lit/preface.html

TRANSLATOR’S COMMENTS

Literature, to be worthy of the name, must, it is true, deal with noble matter – the riddle of our existence, the great facts of life, the changing passions of the human heart, the discernment of some deep moral truth.

Schopenhauer is perfectly right in holding that neglect of the ancient classics, which are the best of all models in the art of writing, will infallibly lead to a degeneration of literature.

And the method of discovering the best qualities of style, and of forming a theory of writing, is not to follow some trick or mannerism that happens to please for the moment, but to study the way in which great authors have done their best work.

ARTHUR SCHOPENHAUER – THE ART OF LITERATURE

- On Authorship

o When an author writes for the sake of covering paper, he is cheating the reader; because her writes under the pretext that he has something to say.

- On Style

o To imitate another man’s style is like wearing a mask, which, be it never so fine, is not long in arousing disgust and abhorrence, because it is lifeless; so that even the ugliest living face is better.

o A man’s style shows the formal nature of all his thoughts – the formal nature which can never change, be the subject or the character of his thoughts what it may: it is, as it were, the dough out of which all the contents of his mind are kneaded.

o Every mediocre writer tries to mask his own natural style, because in his heart he knows the truth of what I am saying. If they would only go honestly to work, and say, quite simply, the things they have really thought, and just as they have thought them, these writers would be readable and, within their own proper sphere, even instructive.

o Nothing is easier than to write so that no one can understand; just as contrarily, nothing is more difficult than to express deep things in such a way that every one must necessarily grasp them.

o Horace: Good sense is the source and origin of good style.

· Every really great writer tries to express his thoughts as purely, clearly, definitely and shortly as possible. Simplicity has always been held to be a mark of truth; it is also a mark of genius.