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Philipp Mainländer Quotes

Philipp Mainländer was a German philosopher and poet. Born Philipp Batz, he later changed his name to "Mainländer" in homage to his hometown, Offenbach am Main.

In his central work Die Philosophie der Erlösung — according to Theodor Lessing, "perhaps the most radical system of pessimism known to philosophical literature" — Mainländer proclaims that life is worthless, and that "the will, ignited by the knowledge that non-being is better than being, is the supreme principle of morality." Wikipedia  

✵ 5. October 1841 – 1. April 1876
Philipp Mainländer photo
Philipp Mainländer: 5 quotes9 likes

Famous Philipp Mainländer Quotes

“Every action of man, the highest as well as the lowest, is egoistic; for it flows from a certain individuality, a certain I, with a sufficient motive, and can in no way be omitted. To go into the reason of the difference of characters is not the place here; we have simply to accept it as a fact. Now it is just as impossible for the merciful man to let his neighbor starve as it is for the hard-hearted man to help the poor. Each of the two acts according to his character, his nature, his ego, his happiness, consequently egoistically; for if the merciful one did not dry the tears of others, would he be happy? And if the hard-hearted one relieved the suffering of others, would he be satisfied?”

Philipp Mainländer

Source: Philosophie der Erlösung, Erster Band (2014), Ethik, § 11 ISBN 978-1494963262

“The kingdom of heaven after death, nirvana and absolute nothingness are one and the same.”

Philipp Mainländer

Source: Philosophie der Erlösung, Erster Band (2014), Metaphysik (Anhang: Kritik der Lehren Kant’s und Schopenhauer’s) ISBN 978-1494963262

“God died and His death was the life of the world.”

Philipp Mainländer

Source: Philosophie der Erlösung, Erster Band (2014), Physik, § 38 ISBN 978-1494963262

“The will must not only despise death, it must love it; for chastity is the love of death.”

Philipp Mainländer

Source: Philosophie der Erlösung, Erster Band (2014), Ethik, § 26 ISBN 978-1494963262

“And who is and should be a pessimist? He who is mature for death. He can love life so scarcely as he [the optimist] can depart from it. If he does not realize that he will survive in his children, his procreation loses its horrible character; but if he realizes it, he will recoil in horror from it, just like Humboldt noticing that it is paying dearly for a few minutes of pleasure with the torments that another being must endure perhaps for eighty years, and consider the procreation of children as a crime and justly so.”

Philipp Mainländer

Source: Philosophie der Erlösung, Erster Band (2014), Metaphysik, § 21 ISBN 978-1494963262

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