Schopenhauer was a huge influence on Richard Wagner , Friedrich Nietzsche , Ludwig Wittgenstein , Thomas Mann , Sigmund Freud , Leo Tolstoy , Carl Jung and many other important artists and thinkers of the 20th Century . Schopenhauer 's metaphysical analysis of will , his views on human motivation and desire , and his aphoristic writing style influenced many well-known thinkers including Friedrich Nietzsche , Richard Wagner , Ludwig Wittgenstein , Erwin SchrÃ dinger , Albert Einstein , Sigmund Freud , Otto Rank , Carl Gustav Jung , Leo Tolstoy , and Jorge Luis Borges .