Compassion is the foundation of morality.
Mitleid ist die Grundlage der Moral.
Philosophers
Arthur Schopenhauer
Born in 1788 in Danzig (now Gdansk), Arthur Schopenhauer constructed in The World as Will and Representation a metaphysics identifying the essence of reality as a blind, purposeless 'will.' Inheriting Kant's critical philosophy while becoming the first major Western philosopher to integrate Buddhist thought systematically, his pessimistic vision of human nature profoundly shaped Nietzsche, Wagner, and Freud.
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Arthur Schopenhauer's Other Quotes
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It is not living that matters, but living rightly.
-- Socrates
No one desires evil.
-- Socrates
Ethics is the ground of being of human community — the way of aidagara (betweenness) between person and person.
-- Tetsuro Watsuji
Human nature is evil; its goodness is the result of deliberate effort.
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Do not impose on others what you yourself do not desire.
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A person may cause evil to others not only by his actions but by his inaction, and in either case he is justly accountable to them for the injury.
-- John Stuart Mill