Arthur Schopenhauer was a 19th-century philosopher who lived in the shadow of
the Enlightenment — an era obsessed with reason, progress, and the idea that humans
were becoming more rational and civilised. While the thinkers of his time were busy
glorifying the promise of a brighter future, Schopenhauer turned in the
opposite direction. He didn’t see a world becoming more rational or humane.
He saw a world endlessly spinning in the same cycle of craving, disappointment,
and suffering. At the heart of his philosophy is a brutal observation:
life is suffering — not by mistake, but by design. According to Schopenhauer, we are not led by
reason or virtue. We are driven by a blind, unconscious force he called the Will — a
relentless engine that powers all life. It’s what makes animals hunt, plants grow,
humans strive. Not because these things lead to peace or fulfillment, but because the Will
must express itself. It wants. That’s all it knows. And it’s never satisfied.
Our desire is at the root cause of all our sufferings and desire is the shape this Will
takes inside us. We want things. We chase goals, pleasures, meaning. And even when we get what we
want, it’s never enough. One desire fades, and another quickly takes its place. We suffer when
we lack. We suffer when we gain and realize it wasn’t what we hoped. We suffer from the
fear of loss and from the memory of losing. The Will doesn’t care — it keeps pulling us
forward, always hungry, always restless. In a world obsessed with self-improvement,
positivity, and productivity hacks, Schopenhauer’s words cut through the noise. You can hustle,
meditate, journal, pray. You can distract yourself with love, status,
even spirituality. But eventually, the illusion breaks. The same pain, the same emptiness comes
back. The same question whispers: What am I really chasing? And why is it never enough?
Schopenhauer wasn’t trying to depress us. He was pointing to a deeper truth: maybe
the problem isn’t you—maybe it’s life itself. A life built on endless wanting, chasing, aching.
Unless we become aware of this cycle, we’ll mistake striving for meaning. We’ll confuse
movement with direction. This restlessness isn’t a flaw in your personality—it’s the
nature of the force that drives all life. It's The will - a force that never stops.
In this video, we are going to explore 7 dark truths of life from Schopenhauer’s philosophy —
not to make you hopeless, but to help you see the Will for what it really is. To look beyond its
illusion, and accept the true nature of life… Now, understanding these truths may not bring
happiness. But it might offer something deeper: a stillness. Not from having
enough—but from knowing why we never do and from this stillness we truly begin to grow.
1. Pleasure is Just the Brief Absence of Pain
Schopenhauer said something most people don’t want to hear — that what we often
call happiness isn’t real joy. It’s just a relief. A break. A moment where
the craving stops, but only for a little while. Think about it — when was the last time you felt
truly happy? Not just okay or busy, but deeply at peace, without needing anything else? Now
ask yourself… Was that happiness? Or was it just the end of some discomfort? Hunger. Loneliness.
Stress. You ate something, you felt better. You scrolled through your phone, you felt entertained.
You talked to someone, and the silence in your head went quiet — at least for a bit.
But then eventually it all comes back. The itch. The need. The feeling that something’s still
missing. That’s the pattern Schopenhauer saw. Life, he said, swings like a pendulum between
pain and boredom. You suffer when you don’t have what you want. But when you do get it,
it’s not long before that restless feeling creeps back in. It’s not peace — just the
brief pause between one want and the next. And the force behind all of this? He called it the Will.
It’s not some noble, grand idea. It’s not about purpose or meaning. The Will is just this blind,
relentless drive inside all of us. It doesn’t care if you’re happy. It doesn’t care if you're
exhausted. It just wants. And once it gets what it wants, it moves on and then It wants again…
and again… and again… for as long as it exists. And if you’re not aware of it, it’ll run your
whole life. You’ll spend years chasing one thing after another — thinking the next job,
the next partner, the next version of yourself will finally be “it.” But it never is. Because
the Will doesn’t want satisfaction. It wants motion. And it keeps pushing.
But the moment you start noticing it — really seeing it for what it is — something shifts.
You begin to catch it in the act. That little voice that says, “Grab your phone,”
“Open Instagram,” “Go and check something,” — you hear it. And now, you’ve got a choice.
You don’t have to obey. That’s where real growth
starts. Not in some big dramatic transformation. But in the quiet choice to pause. To sit with
discomfort instead of running from it. To say, “I see you,” to the craving — and not give in.
It’s subtle. But it’s powerful. You start to realize that most of what you chase
isn’t about joy — it’s about trying to escape some kind of pain. But what if you stopped running?
What if you just… stayed with it? The Will won’t disappear. It’ll
still a whisper. But now you’re not its puppet. And next time you feel that familiar pull — to
scroll, to distract, to chase — ask yourself: Do I really want this?
Or is it just the Will again, doing what it always does?
Because real strength isn’t about constantly getting what you want.
It’s about learning that… maybe you don’t need to. And maybe joy — real, lasting
joy — doesn’t come from feeding every urge. Maybe it comes from learning you don’t have to.
2. Growth is Desire in Disguise
Ask yourself honestly: Why am I really chasing growth?
Waking up at 5 AM. Hustling non-stop. Tracking every step, every calorie, every task. On the
surface, it looks like discipline. But often, it’s not about becoming better — it’s about
running from the quiet voice that says, “Who I am right now isn’t enough.” but that’s not
growth. That’s rejection — rejection of your present self, disguised as self-improvement.
You start working out, not because you respect your body, but because you’ve learned to hate
it. You chase success, not because it brings joy, but because you’re terrified of being seen
as unworthy. Even love becomes transactional — not a connection, but a fix for the loneliness
you’re too afraid to sit with. And here’s the deeper truth:
what we call growth is often just the Will wearing a new mask — dressed up in productivity, ambition,
or self-help. It’s the same insatiable force. It doesn’t want peace. It only wants more.
So what happens when we grow by listening to the Will? We never stop. No matter what we achieve,
it never feels like enough. The goalpost moves. The applause fades. The emptiness returns. And
so we push harder. We wear burnout like a badge. We confuse pain with purpose. We sacrifice rest,
relationships, even our identity — all in service of a desire that doesn’t care if we’re fulfilled,
only that we keep moving. But the worst part isn’t the exhaustion. It’s the quiet,
constant rejection of who we are right now. Every time we chase growth from the Will,
we reinforce a painful lie: “This version of me doesn’t deserve love yet.”
So we postpone peace. We delay self-acceptance. We believe we’ll finally be enough — but
only after we become someone else. But not all growth is healing. Some
growth is escape. Some is self-erasure. We grow from wounds, hoping that if we change enough,
we’ll finally feel whole. But real peace doesn't come from becoming someone else — it comes from
seeing that you were never broken to begin with. So what’s the way forward?
Awareness. And more importantly — compassion. If you want to stop growing from pain,
you have to face it. You have to sit with the parts of yourself you’ve been trying to fix,
outrun, or silence. Because underneath all the striving is usually one quiet, painful belief:
“There’s something wrong with me.” And here’s the truth: you can’t heal what
you hate. You might change the outside, but the same wounds keep speaking. So instead of asking,
“How do I fix myself?”, try asking, “What part of me needs kindness right now?”
That simple shift — from judgment to curiosity — is where real growth begins.
Take fitness for example. You can train out of shame — punishing a body you’ve
never learned to love. Or you can train from care — strengthening a body you
respect. Same action. Entirely different energy. Or similarly with success. If you’re chasing it
to prove your worth, you’ll always feel like a fraud. But if success comes from knowing you
already matter, it stops being a performance and starts being an expression of who you are.
Even love. If you think being loved will finally make you okay, you’ll keep hiding
parts of yourself to stay accepted. And deep down, you’ll know — you’re not really being
seen. But when you stop trying to be lovable and start loving yourself, something shifts.
You stop performing, and start connecting. Love stops being survival, and starts being real.
This is the turning point. Growth doesn’t mean becoming
someone else. It means becoming more you. Not out of fear. Not out of pressure. But
out of stillness, clarity, and the quiet understanding that you are already enough.
3. Love is Nature’s Trick Schopenhauer believed that romantic love
isn’t what we think it is. It’s not some divine meeting of souls or the key to lasting happiness.
Instead, it’s a trick — a clever design by nature to keep the species going.
Behind the feelings of passion and obsession, there’s something primal at work: the Will.
When you fall deeply in love with someone, it might feel like fate or cosmic connection. But
Schopenhauer would say it’s biology pulling strings behind the scenes. Your desire isn't
always about emotional connection — it’s about traits, instincts, and the potential to create
strong offspring. That’s why we sometimes feel drawn to people who aren’t good for us,
who cause chaos or pain. The Will doesn’t care if you’re happy. It cares if your
genes get passed on - And that’s it. Now this might sound bleak at first,
but it’s actually liberating. Because once you understand that love can be driven by forces
outside your control, you stop blindly following every intense feeling. You start to question the
attraction instead of surrendering to it. You stop assuming that chemistry equals compatibility.
Think of someone who keeps going back to a toxic partner. No matter how much pain the
relationship causes, they feel pulled back in. They say it must be love. But in many cases,
it’s not love — it’s addiction. It’s biology, attachment, unresolved wounds, and the Will
creating an illusion. The moment you start recognizing that pull for what it really is, you
gain distance from it. You step out of the cycle. You can still love. You can still feel. But now,
you’re not at the mercy of your emotions. You’re watching them with clarity. You’re
asking the right questions: Do I feel calm with this person, or just excited? Do they bring peace,
or just drama and dopamine? Am I choosing this love, or am I being driven by something I don’t
understand? That’s where self-awareness comes in. It doesn’t kill love. It makes it conscious. And
when love becomes conscious, it becomes something deeper than biology — something truly human.
4. Loneliness Is the Price of True Wisdom
When you finally become aware of the Will — that blind,
restless force driving your every desire — and begin to question it, a strange shift happens.
You start to realize: Most of what I want… was never really mine.
The goals. The lifestyle. The image. The grind. It was all the Will — dressed up as ambition,
improvement, even love. And when that illusion cracks — when
you truly see how deeply it’s shaped your life — something inside begins to shift.Quietly. Deeply.
You don’t announce it. You don’t need to. But you begin to pull away.. You crave silence. A long,
quiet walk feels more nourishing than hours of small talk. Books become your friends.
Your own thoughts become conversations. And the world — loud, fast, and constantly
performing — starts to feel like a place you don’t quite belong in anymore. Not because
you’re angry. Not because you’re better. But because you’ve touched something real. And that
realness makes everything fake feel heavier. Schopenhauer once said, “The more a man finds
his sources of pleasure in himself, the happier he will be.” And it’s true — as you grow on the
inside, you start to notice how many people live only on the outside, chasing distraction, status,
or comfort. And your soul starts to pull away. Not to show off. But because you can’t stay in the
same old spaces anymore. The conversations that used to excite you now feel hollow. And sadly,
the world often calls that loneliness. However for Schopenhauer, wisdom wasn’t something you
shared at parties. It was something you carried, often alone. Seeing through the
illusions of life means losing the comfort of blending in. So what do you do with that solitude?
Use it. Let it feed you. Read the things that stretch your thinking. Write just to see what you
really believe. Sit with your thoughts instead of running from them. Make things — not for approval,
but just to express what’s inside. Walk without a goal. Listen without needing
to reply. Notice things without judging. Let solitude be your teacher — not your prison.
Also when you’re really alone — no noise, no distractions — something strange happens. The
Will gets loud. That part of you that always wants more starts scrambling for anything: your phone,
a snack, some background noise. It hates silence. But if you sit with that silence long enough,
something shifts. You start to hear the difference between your true voice… and
the Will’s endless wanting. You start to see which desires actually matter — and which are
just noise, thats when the real growth happens. 5. Compassion is the Highest Form of Strength
Schopenhauer saw life not as a beautiful story, but as a stage filled with suffering. And he
didn’t mean that as a metaphor — he believed pain is at the very heart of existence. The
constant hunger to survive, the endless chase for satisfaction, the loneliness behind our
wants — this is what life is made of. So in a world built on that kind of
struggle, what could possibly save us? For Schopenhauer, the answer was compassion.
Compassion is that rare moment when you feel someone else's pain — and it hits you, because
it feels like your own. And in that moment, something shifts. You're not thinking about
winning or gaining or getting ahead. You just want to help. To Schopenhauer, that was powerful.
Because for a brief time, the Will — that force inside us that always wants — goes quiet.
So compassion isn’t just a nice feeling. It’s a kind of rebellion. While the Will says,
“Take,” compassion says, “Give.” While the Will wants more, compassion says,
“This is enough.” That’s why Schopenhauer believed real ethics don’t come from rules or logic — they
come from feeling. From recognizing suffering in someone else, and caring enough to respond.
In today’s world, where everything is about success and self-improvement,
compassion can seem soft — but it’s not. It takes real strength to set
aside your own needs and focus on someone else’s. While the ego wants to stand tall,
compassion chooses to kneel. Not because it’s weak — but because it understands more.
We often hear about “conquering the self.” But Schopenhauer would say the highest form
of that is not control or dominance — it’s kindness. It’s being able to look at someone
and say, “I see your pain. And it matters.” Compassion doesn’t erase the Will completely,
but it slows it down. It reminds us that meaning isn’t found in chasing
more — but in caring more. In connection. In mercy. In being there for someone else.
6. Art and Philosophy Are Escapes from the Madness
The Will is blind, it's relentless, and it never stops wanting. That constant wanting
creates suffering and every living thing is caught up in it. So if suffering is the norm,
not the exception, what does it mean to rise above it? Schopenhauer's answer: you don’t beat
the Will by chasing after more. You step outside of it by letting go of what drives it — desire.
As long as we keep wanting, lasting peace or happiness will always slip through our fingers.
But he did see rare moments where we can escape — at least briefly. One of those moments is through
beauty — what he called aesthetic experiences. These are times when we’re not chasing anything,
but simply seeing. Looking at a painting, listening to music, reading a poem — if we
truly lose ourselves in it, we stop thinking about ourselves. We’re not judging or
comparing. We’re just there. Still. Free. Music, especially, had a special place
for Schopenhauer. He saw it as the purest form of art. It doesn’t explain anything,
but it speaks straight to our inner world. It echoes our pain — and somehow softens it.
Philosophy was another path. Not the kind used to show off or win arguments,
but the kind that helps us understand life’s deeper truths. It doesn’t take the pain away,
but it gives us space from it. Once we start to understand how life works — how
chasing pleasure leads nowhere, how nothing lasts, how the ego is mostly an
illusion — we can find a strange kind of peace. Not happiness, exactly. But dignity. Clarity.
Modern life is full of distractions — gossip, endless scrolling, cheap thrills. They promise
relief, but really just feed the hunger. True peace isn’t found in escape. It’s found rising
above. So feed your soul with things that last. Read old books. Listen to deep music.
Stare at a painting. Get lost in a poem. Now, these almost certainly won’t solve your
problems — but they will remind you that you’re bigger than them. In a world obsessed with more,
art and philosophy don’t just soothe us. They set us free, even if it's just for a brief moment.
7. Letting Go Is the Only Escape from Endless Wanting
Schopenhauer believed asceticism — giving up worldly desires — was the most powerful way
to rise above suffering. It's not just about resisting temptation. It's about letting go of
desire itself. He saw saints, monks, and mystics as people who had truly woken up. They realized
that no amount of pleasure would ever bring real peace. So they walked away — not because they
were weak, but because they saw clearly. They gave up chasing after pleasure, status, sex,
and even a fixed sense of self. And in doing that, Schopenhauer saw something incredible:
the Will — the force that’s inside us that always wants — started to die down. And when
the Will is quiet, suffering fades away too. He said it like this: “The denial of the
Will to live reveals the path to true deliverance from suffering.”
This wasn’t about going to heaven or some afterlife. For him,
real transcendence was here and now — a kind of deep inner stillness, free from the constant
urge to want more. Now, Schopenhauer knew that total asceticism — giving up
all pleasure — was only possible for a few people. Monks. Sages. Saints, and so on,
But he believed the rest of us could still take small steps in that direction. We can
loosen the grip of the Will by being more aware — and by choosing not to give in to every impulse.
You don’t need to give up everything. But you can stop grabbing your phone every time you’re bored.
You can pause before snapping in anger. You can notice when you're eating just to feel better,
or chasing praise instead of being honest. These small acts of restraint are quiet ways of saying
“no” to the Will. Over time, this becomes more than a habit — it becomes a mindset.
A way of living with less grasping. Less needing. Less illusion.And let’s be clear:
detachment isn’t about being cold or numb. It’s not about giving up on life. It’s about having
the strength to let go of what everyone else is chasing. It’s saying: I don’t need more to be
okay. I don’t need to feel good all the time. I just want to be free. And with that freedom
comes a different kind of joy. Not the rush of pleasure — but the peace of not needing it.
You stop asking, “What can I get from life?” And start asking, “Who am I without all this noise?”
That’s the power of detachment. Not running away from your life — but rising above the
part of it that keeps us stuck. You don’t beat the Will by wrestling it. You beat it
by starving it. And in that space where wanting fades, something new appears — a deeper peace,
a quieter self, and a freedom that doesn’t come from having more……but from needing less.
As always if you enjoyed this video, please make sure to check out our full philosophies
for life playlist, and for more videos to help you find success and happiness using
beautiful philosophical wisdom, don’t forget to subscribe. Thanks so much for watching.