A disciple of Kant and a significant factor in shaping Nietzsche's thinking, Arthur Schopenhauer worked from the foundation that reality is but an extension of our own will, and that human life is characterized chiefly by misery. In this essay,Schopenhauer offers his thoughts: on "the sufferings of the world," and why evil is positive ；on "the vanity of existence,"；on suicide；on immortality and why it is less than desirable ；on women, and why "they remain children their whole life long"and more.

Students of philosophy and of 19th-century intellectualism will find this a fascinating read.

Arthur Schopenhauer (22 February 1788 – 21 September 1860) was a German philosopher. He is best known for his 1818 work The World as Will and Representation (expanded in 1844), wherein he characterizes the phenomenal world as the product of a blind and insatiable metaphysical will.