The Essays of  Arthur Schopenhauer (translated)

If my goal in these pages were to present a comprehensive set of advice and maxims to guide life, I would have to repeat the numerous rules, some of them excellent, that have been elaborated by thinkers of all ages, from Theognis and Solomon 1 to La Rochefoucauld; and in doing so, I would inevitably impose on the reader a great deal of trite and hackneyed platitudes. But the fact is that in this work I claim even less to exhaust the subject than in any of my other writings.