Truth that has been merely learned is like an artificial limb, a false tooth, a waxen nose; at best, like a nose made out of another’s flesh; it adheres to us only because it is put on. But truth acquired by thinking of our own is like a natural limb; it alone really belongs to us. This is the fundamental difference between the thinker and the mere man of learning.
Arthur Schopenhauer, “On Thinking for Oneself,” Parerga und Paralipomena, Vol. 2, § 260
Is it possible for a person to speak six languages freely, to be recognized authority in his field, to be a supporter of Buddhism, yet to be described as a misanthrop? It is possible, of course. One striking example is Arthur Schopenhauer. They identify Schopenhauer as one of the founders and the brightest representatives of the philosophy of irrationalism. Philosophy, which, unlike rationalism, claims that not everything is possible to be known through reason, but there is such knowledge that man or not can attain, or must rely on qualities such as instinct, intuition, feeling, faith .
Schopenhauer was born on 22 February 1788 in Danzig, Prussia (today's Gdansk in Poland). His father is half French blood, his mother is 20 years younger than his husband. Schopenhauer from a small child grows up among books, so it's no wonder he masters German, French, Latin, English, Italian and Spanish to perfection. As a thinker, he is influenced by mysticism, and he does not hide his attachment to Buddhism. Still, in nature, he is stubborn, sharp in his attitude towards the others, and very dignified. It is therefore also referred to as misanthropy.
His main work, "The World as Will and Representation", was published in 1819. A year later, the open clash between him and another great philosopher from the era - Hegel - began. They remain irreconcilable until the death of Hegel in 1831. For that, how much Schopenhauer has influenced the future is enough to say that traces of his perceptions can be found in Nietzsche, Wagner, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Sigmund Freud, Albert Einstein, Carl Jung, Schrödingen, Lev Tolstoy.