Schopenhauer on Egoism
Quotes from The Two Fundamental Problems of Ethics
Egoism is colossal: it towers over the world. For if any individual were given the choice between his own and the rest of the world’s annihilation, then I need not say what the result would be for most. Accordingly everyone makes himself the centre of the world, refers everything to himself, and whatever simply occurs, e.g. the greatest changes in the fate of nations, he will first refer to his interests, no matter how trivial and incidental these may be, before thinking about anything else. There is no greater contrast than that between the great and exclusive interest that each takes in his own self and the indifference with which, as a rule, everyone else regards this self, just as he regards theirs.
... egoism shows itself in everyday life, in which, in spite of the politeness one puts in front of it like a fig-leaf, it always peeps out from one corner or another. Politeness is the conventional and systematic denial of egoism in the trifles of daily intercourse and is readily recognized as hypocrisy, yet it is required and praised because what it conceals, egoism, is so obscene that one does not want to see it, although one knows that it is there, just as one wants to know that offensive objects are at least covered by a curtain.
Ill-will is very abundant, indeed, almost commonplace in its lower degrees, and it easily approaches the higher. Goethe was quite right to say that in this world indifference and aversion are right at home (Elective Affinities, pt. I, chap. 3). It is very fortunate for us that prudence and politeness throw their mantle over these and do not allow us to see how universal is mutual ill-will and how ‘the war of all against all’ is carried on, at least in thoughts. But occasionally it appears, e.g., in frequent and relentlessly evil gossip; however, it becomes quite visible in the outbreaks of anger, which often exceeds its cause many times over and would not prove to be so strong if it had not, like the gunpowder in a flintlock, been compressed as hate long-preserved through inner brooding. In large part ill-will arises from the inevitable collisions of egoism that appear each step of the way.
A man can be himself only so long as he is alone; and if he does not love solitude, he will not love freedom; for it is only when he is alone that he is really free.