Schopenhauer

Arthur Schopenhauer, one of the 19th century German philosophers* on tap today in CoPhi, was one of the most entertaining philosophical misanthropes ever, “the original pessimistic western intellectual” who borrowed extensively from the east, sought his own nirvana in the extinguishing of “Will,” and thought the termination of existence could be its only point. 

He said:

• Almost all of our sorrows spring out of our relations with other people.
• A man can do what he wills, but not will what he wills.
• A man’s delight in looking forward to and hoping for some particular satisfaction is a part of the pleasure flowing out of it, enjoyed in advance. But this is afterward deducted, for the more we look forward to anything the less we enjoy it when it comes.
• Every man takes the limits of his own field of vision for the limits of the world.
• There is no absurdity so palpable but that it may be firmly planted in the human head if you only begin to inculcate it before the age of five, by constantly repeating it with an air of great solemnity.
• There is no doubt that life is given us, not to be enjoyed, but to be overcome; to be got over.
• We forfeit three-quarters of ourselves in order to be like other people.

I'd excuse his male-pronoun sexism, if he weren't in fact a notorious misogynist as well as misanthrope.

It's too easy to make light of Schopenhauer's over-the-top pessimism, but too much fun not to.

A Day in the Life of Arthur Schopenhauer

https://existentialcomics.com/comic/396

https://existentialcomics.com/philosopher/Arthur_Schopenhauer

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*There are other, more impactful 19th century thinkers, in my opinion-especially the Anglos and the Americans, Mill, Darwin, Emerson, Thoreau, James...