Time & Perspective Quote by Arthur Schopenhauer

Schopenhauer doesn’t dress this up as comfort; he weaponizes clarity. By calling possessions and happiness “lent by chance,” he strips them of the moral sheen we like to apply to our good fortune. Not earned, not deserved, not even securely “ours” in the everyday sense - just temporarily in our custody, like a coat checked at a theater where the ticket can be revoked without notice. The line’s cold power comes from its grammar: “every” leaves no exception, and “may therefore be demanded back the next hour” turns loss into a logical conclusion rather than a tragedy. If you accept the premise, anxiety isn’t irrational; it’s accurate.

The subtext is a critique of attachment and the bourgeois fantasy of stability. Schopenhauer is writing in a 19th-century Europe shaken by war, disease, and economic volatility, but he’s also arguing against the Enlightenment-era belief that reason and progress can secure the good life. For him, the world is not a meritocracy governed by justice but a chaotic surface expression of a blind, striving Will. Chance is not a quirky variable; it’s the hidden landlord.

The intent is practical, if grim: cultivate emotional distance. If happiness is on loan, the sane response is not to clutch it harder but to relate to it differently - with gratitude minus entitlement, enjoyment minus metaphysical expectations. Schopenhauer’s real target isn’t misfortune; it’s the story we tell ourselves that permanence is normal. The quote punctures that story in a single, unsentimental breath.