“The business of the novelist is not to relate great events, but to make small ones interesting.”
Source: The Works of Schopenhauer: The Wisdom of Life and Other Essays
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Arthur Schopenhauer 261
German philosopher 1788–1860Related quotes

“Great novelists are philosopher novelists — that is, the contrary of thesis-writers.”
The Myth of Sisyphus (1942), An Absurd Reasoning

“The one great principle of the English law is, to make business for itself.”
Source: Bleak House (1852-1853), Ch. 39

“Great novelists are philosopher-novelists who write in images instead of arguments.”
This may have arisen as a paraphrase of statements found in The Myth of Sisyphus (1942), "An Absurd Reasoning", or one found in The Novelist as Philosopher: Studies in French Fiction 1935-1960 (1962) edited by John Cruikshank, p. 218
Disputed

“We cannot make Events. Our Business is wisely to improve them.”
Letter to Samuel Cooper (30 April 1776) http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/2093
Context: We cannot make Events. Our Business is wisely to improve them. There has been much to do to confirm doubting Friends & fortify the Timid. It requires time to bring honest Men to think & determine alike even in important Matters. Mankind are governed more by their feelings than by reason.