A Comfortless Philosophy

"I shall be told, I suppose, that my philosophy is comfortless -- because I speak the truth; and people prefer to be assured that everything the Lord has made is good. Go to the priests, then, and leave philosophers in peace! At any rate, do not ask us to accommodate our doctrines to the lessons you have been taught. That is what those rascals of sham philosophers will do for you. Ask them for any doctrine you please, and you will get it. Your University professors are bound to preach optimism; and it is an easy and agreeable task to upset their theories."

 ~ Arthur Schopenhauer, Studies in Pessimism: On the Sufferings of the World (from The Works of Arthur Schopenhauer, Walter J. Black, Inc., New York: 1932).