However, you must read it as , not as a complete guide to living. Pair it with something warmer (e.g., Montaigne’s essays, or even Epicurus’s letters) to avoid becoming a bitter recluse.

In the end, Schopenhauer’s art of being happy is really the art of —and for many, that is already a great victory.

Here’s a comprehensive review of El arte de ser feliz ( The Art of Being Happy ) by Arthur Schopenhauer, based on the compiled edition of his aphorisms and strategies for existence. Author: Arthur Schopenhauer (compiled and edited by Franco Volpi from unpublished manuscripts) Original title: Eudaimonología (or The Art of Being Happy ) Genre: Philosophical self-help, moral psychology, practical philosophy 1. Overview Unlike Schopenhauer’s more famous works ( The World as Will and Representation ), which are deeply pessimistic, El arte de ser feliz is a surprising collection of 50 “rules” or maxims for living a tolerable, even moderately happy, life. The book is not a conventional feel‑good manual. Instead, it is a realistic, often cynical guide to minimizing pain and disappointment, based on Schopenhauer’s lifelong notebooks. Franco Volpi extracted and organized these aphorisms from Schopenhauer’s unpublished Senilia (later reflections).