I observed once to Goethe ...

I observed once to Goethe that when a friend is with us we do not think the same of him as when he is away. He replied, \
I observed once to Goethe that when a friend is with us we do not think the same of him as when he is away. He replied, "Yes! because the absent friend is yourself, and he exists only in your head; whereas the friend who is present has an individuality of his own, and moves according to laws of his own, which cannot always be in accordance with those which you form for yourself.
 Arthur Schopenhauer

Quotes from the same author

Every man takes the limits of his own field of vision for the limits of the world.
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 Arthur Schopenhauer
In action a great heart is the chief qualification. In work, a great head.
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 Arthur Schopenhauer
If children were brought into the world by an act of pure reason alone, would the human race continue to exist? Would not a man rather have so much sympathy with the coming generation as to spare it the burden of existence, or at any rate not take it upon himself to impose that burden upon it in cold blood?
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 Arthur Schopenhauer
A man of business will often deceive you without the slightest scruple, but he will absolutely refuse to commit a theft.
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 Arthur Schopenhauer
The first forty years of life give us the text; the next thirty supply the commentary on it.
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 Arthur Schopenhauer