In early life, as we contemplate our coming life, we are like children in a theater before the curtain is raised, sitting there in high spirits and eagerly wating for the play to begin.

More from Arthur Schopenhauer

• After your death you will be what you were before your birth.
• Everyone takes the limits of his own vision for the limits of the world.
• The discovery of truth is prevented more effectively not by the false appearance of things present and which mislead into error, not directly by weakness of the reasoning powers, but by preconceived opinion, by prejudice.