Sermonette III – Schopenhauer

A reading taken from the works of Arthur Schopenhauer:

I therefore know of no greater absurdity than that absurdity which characterizes almost all metaphysical systems: that of explaining evil as something negative. For evil is precisely that which is positive, that which makes itself palpable; and good, on the other hand, i.e. all happiness and all gratification, is that which is negative, the mere abolition of a desire and extinction of a pain.

– Arthur Schopenhauer.
On the Suffering of the World
(London: Penguin, 2004), p. 4.