In the work of Arthur Schopenhauer, a misanthropic and pessimistic thinker reviled for his bitter invective, the reader will not find candid thoughts which peacefully accompany the passing of days. However, he will be mistaken if he looks for in the author only a bitter vision of life, harsh diagnoses about the times he lived in, or even, ultimately, an exhortation to suicide. As this selection of texts, by Ernst Ziegler, shows, what springs from his thoughts is the conviction that we must start living anew every day, since it is an art to stay alive.