"Reading is merely a surrogate for thinking for yourself; it means letting someone else direct your thoughts. Many books, moreover, serve merely to show how many ways there are of being wrong, and how far astray you yourself would go if you followed their guidance. You should read only when your own thoughts dry up, which will of course happen frequently enough even to the best heads; but to banish your own thoughts so as to take up a book is a sin against the holy ghost; it is like deserting untrammeled nature to look at a herbarium or engravings of landscapes."

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About Arthur Schopenhauer

German philosopher known for his influential work on pessimism, metaphysics, ethics, and aesthetics. His major work The World as Will and Representation shaped later thinkers in philosophy, psychology, and literature. He remains a key figure in 19th-century European intellectual history.

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