In The Wisdom of Life, an essay from Schopenhauer's final work, Parerga und Paralipomena (1851), the philosopher favors individual strength of will and independent, reasoned deliberation over the tendency to act on irrational impulses.

He examines the ways in which life can be arranged to derive the highest degree of pleasure and success, presents guidelines to achieving this full and rich manner of living, and advises that even a life well lived must always aspire to grander heights.

Abounding in subjects of enduring relevance, Schopenhauer's highly readable work appears here in an excellent translation.

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https://www.globalgreyebooks.com/ebooks1/arthur-schopenhauer/wisdom-of-life/wisdom-of-life.pdf

Excerpts from the book.

The most general survey shows us that the two foes of human happiness
are pain and boredom. We may go further, and say that in the degree in
which we are fortunate enough to get away from the one, we approach the
other. Life presents, in fact, a more or less violent oscillation between the
two.

The reason of this is that each of these two poles stands in a double
antagonism to the other, external or objective, and inner or subjective.
Needy surroundings and poverty produce pain; while, if a man is more than well off, he is bored.

Accordingly, while the lower classes are engaged in a ceaseless struggle with need, in other words, with pain, the upper carry on a constant and often desperate battle with boredom.


But, on the other hand, this high degree of intelligence is rooted in a high
degree of susceptibility, greater strength of will, greater passionateness;
and from the union of these qualities comes an increased capacity for
emotion, an enhanced sensibility to all mental and even bodily pain, greater
impatience of obstacles, greater resentment of interruption; — all of which tendencies are augmented by the power of the imagination, the vivid
character of the whole range of thought, including what is disagreeable.

The inner or subjective antagonism arises from the fact that, in the individual, susceptibility to pain
varies inversely with susceptibility to boredom, because susceptibility is
directly proportionate to mental power.

Let me explain. A dull mind is, as a
rule, associated with dull sensibilities, nerves which no stimulus can affect, a
temperament, in short, which does not feel pain or anxiety very much,
however great or terrible it may be.

Now, intellectual dullness is at the
bottom of that vacuity of soul which is stamped on so many faces, a state of
mind which betrays itself by a constant and lively attention to all the trivial
circumstances in the external world.

This is the true source of boredom — a
continual panting after excitement, in order to have a pretext for giving the
mind and spirits something to occupy them. The kind of things people
choose for this purpose shows that they are not very particular, as witness
the miserable pastimes they have recourse to, and their ideas of social
pleasure and conversation: or again, the number of people who gossip on
the doorstep or gape out of the window.

It is mainly because of this inner
vacuity of soul that people go in quest of society, diversion, amusement,
luxury of every sort, which lead many to extravagance and misery.

Nothing is so good a protection against such misery as inward wealth, the wealth of the mind, because the greater it grows, the less room it leaves for boredom.

First of all come the pleasures of vital energy, of food, drink, digestion, rest
and sleep; and there are parts of the world where it can be said that these
are characteristic and national pleasures.

Secondly, there are the pleasures
of muscular energy, such as walking, running, wrestling, dancing, fencing,
riding and similar athletic pursuits, which sometimes take the form of sport,
and sometimes of a military life and real warfare.

Thirdly, there are the
pleasures of sensibility, such as observation, thought, feeling, or a taste for poetry or culture, music, learning, reading, meditation, invention,
philosophy and the like.

As regards the value, relative worth and duration of each of these kinds of pleasure, a great deal might be said, which, however, I leave the reader to supply. But every one will see that the nobler the power which is brought into play, the greater will be the pleasure which it gives; for pleasure always involves the use of one’s own powers, and happiness consists in a frequent repetition of pleasure.

No one will deny that in this respect the pleasures of sensibility occupy a higher place than either of the other two fundamental kinds; which exist in an equal, nay, in a greater degree in brutes; it is this preponderating amount of sensibility which distinguishes man from other animals.

Now, our mental powers are forms of sensibility, and therefore a preponderating amount of it makes us
capable of that kind of pleasure which has to do with mind, so-called
intellectual pleasure; and the more sensibility predominates, the greater the
pleasure will be.

Female honor is the general opinion in regard to a girl that she is pure, and in
regard to a wife that she is faithful. The importance of this opinion rests
upon the following considerations. Women depend upon men in all the
relations of life; men upon women, it might be said, in one only. So an
arrangement is made for mutual interdependence — man undertaking
responsibility for all woman’s needs and also for the children that spring
from their union — an arrangement on which is based the welfare of the
whole female race.

To carry out this plan, women have to band together with a show of esprit de corps, and present one undivided front to their common enemy, man — who possesses all the good things of the earth, in virtue of his superior physical and intellectual power — in order to lay siege to and conquer him, and so get possession of him and a share of those good things.

To this end the honor of all women depends upon the enforcement
of the rule that no woman should give herself to a man except in marriage,
in order that every man may be forced, as it were, to surrender and ally himself with a woman; by this arrangement provision is made for the whole of the female race.

This is a result, however, which can be obtained only by a strict observance of the rule; and, accordingly, women everywhere show true esprit de corps in carefully insisting upon its maintenance. Any girl who commits a breach of the rule betrays the whole female race, because its welfare would be destroyed if every woman were to do likewise; so she is cast out with shame as one who has lost her honor. No woman will have
anything more to do with her; she is avoided like the plague.

The same doom is awarded to a woman who breaks the marriage tie; for in so doing she is false to the terms upon which the man capitulated; and as her
conduct is such as to frighten other men from making a similar surrender, it
imperils the welfare of all her sisters.

Nay, more; this deception and coarse
breach of troth is a crime punishable by the loss, not only of personal, but
also of civic honor. This is why we minimize the shame of a girl, but not of a wife; because, in the former case, marriage can restore honor, while in the
latter, no atonement can be made for the breach of contract.