Dilettantes

Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860), Parerga and Paralipomena, Vol. II, Chapter 21, § 249 (tr. Adrian Del Caro and Christopher Janaway): Dilettantes, dilettantes! This is what those who pursue knowledge or art out of love for them and joy in them, ‘for their pleasure’, are disparagingly called by those who are in it for profit, because they are delighted only by the money that can be earned through them. This disparagement is based on their wretched conviction that no one would seriously engage in something unless need, hunger or some other such craving spurred them on. The public is of the same spirit and therefore the same opinion; this explains their general respect for the ‘professionals’ and their mistrust of dilettantes. In truth, on the other hand, for the dilettante a subject is his end, but for the professional man as such it is merely the means; but only he will pursue something with total seriousness who has a direct stake in it and who occupies himself with it out of love, and…