G. C. (Georg Christoph) Lichtenberg Quotes


Man is a gregarious animal and much more so in his mind than in his body. A golden rule; judge men not by their opinions but by what their opinions have made of them. G. C. (Georg Christoph) Lichtenberg Opinion 751
The worst thing you can possibly do is worrying and thinking about what you could have done. G. C. (Georg Christoph) Lichtenberg Worry 101
A person reveals his character by nothing so clearly as the joke he resents. G. C. (Georg Christoph) Lichtenberg Character 100
A handful of soldiers is always better than a mouthful of arguments. G. C. (Georg Christoph) Lichtenberg Oppression 99
In each of us there is a little of all of us. G. C. (Georg Christoph) Lichtenberg People 96
A clever child brought up with a foolish one can itself become foolish. Man is so perfectible and corruptible he can become a fool through good sense. G. C. (Georg Christoph) Lichtenberg Fools 86
So-called professional mathematicians have, in their reliance on the relative incapacity of the rest of mankind, acquired for themselves a reputation for profundity very similar to the reputation for sanctity possessed by theologians. G. C. (Georg Christoph) Lichtenberg Mathematics 86
Reason now gazes above the realm of the dark but warm feelings as the Alpine peaks do above the clouds. They behold the sun more clearly and distinctly, but they are cold and unfruitful. G. C. (Georg Christoph) Lichtenberg Reason 85
He was then in his fifty-fourth year, when even in the case of poets reason and passion begin to discuss a peace treaty and usually conclude it not very long afterwards. G. C. (Georg Christoph) Lichtenberg Age 85
Many things about our bodies would not seem to us so filthy and obscene if we did not have the idea of nobility in our heads. G. C. (Georg Christoph) Lichtenberg Mankind 83
We can see nothing whatever of the soul unless it is visible in the expression of the countenance; one might call the faces at a large assembly of people a history of the human soul written in a kind of Chinese ideograms. G. C. (Georg Christoph) Lichtenberg Face 82
What I do not like about our definitions of genius is that there is in them nothing of the day of judgment, nothing of resounding through eternity and nothing of the footsteps of the Almighty. G. C. (Georg Christoph) Lichtenberg Genius 82
I believe that man is in the last resort so free a being that his right to be what he believes himself to be cannot be contested. G. C. (Georg Christoph) Lichtenberg Identity 82
He who is enamored of himself will at least have the advantage of being inconvenienced by few rivals. G. C. (Georg Christoph) Lichtenberg Vanity 81
With a pen in my hand I have successfully stormed bulwarks from which others armed with sword and excommunication have been repulsed. G. C. (Georg Christoph) Lichtenberg Books 81
Man can acquire accomplishments or he can become an animal, whichever he wants. God makes the animals, man makes himself. G. C. (Georg Christoph) Lichtenberg Success 80
I have remarked very clearly that I am often of one opinion when I am lying down and of another when I am standing up... G. C. (Georg Christoph) Lichtenberg Opinion 80
A good metaphor is something even the police should keep an eye on. G. C. (Georg Christoph) Lichtenberg Books 80
There are people who believe everything is sane and sensible that is done with a solemn face. G. C. (Georg Christoph) Lichtenberg Identity 80
There is no greater impediment to progress in the sciences than the desire to see it take place too quickly. G. C. (Georg Christoph) Lichtenberg Science 80
Cautiousness in judgment is nowadays to be recommended to each and every one: if we gained only one incontestable truth every ten years from each of our philosophical writers the harvest we reaped would be sufficient. G. C. (Georg Christoph) Lichtenberg Doubt 79
If people should ever start to do only what is necessary millions would die of hunger. G. C. (Georg Christoph) Lichtenberg Necessity 78
The American who first discovered Columbus made a bad discovery. G. C. (Georg Christoph) Lichtenberg Discovery 76
The most dangerous untruths are truths slightly distorted. G. C. (Georg Christoph) Lichtenberg Propaganda 76
Ideas too are a life and a world. G. C. (Georg Christoph) Lichtenberg Ideas 76
It is said that truth comes from the mouths of fools and children: I wish every good mind which feels an inclination for satire would reflect that the finest satirist always has something of both in him. G. C. (Georg Christoph) Lichtenberg Cynicism 76
With the majority of people unbelief in one thing is founded on the blind belief in another. G. C. (Georg Christoph) Lichtenberg Belief 75
To err is human also in so far as animals seldom or never err, or at least only the cleverest of them do so. G. C. (Georg Christoph) Lichtenberg Mistakes 74
Everyone is a genius at least once a year; a real genius has his original ideas closer together. G. C. (Georg Christoph) Lichtenberg Genius 74
The sure conviction that we could if we wanted to is the reason so many good minds are idle. G. C. (Georg Christoph) Lichtenberg Actions 74
If an angel were ever to tell us anything of his philosophy I believe many propositions would sound like 2 times 2 equals 13. G. C. (Georg Christoph) Lichtenberg Angels 73
Theologians always try to turn the Bible into a book without common sense. G. C. (Georg Christoph) Lichtenberg Religion 72
People who never have any time on their hands are those who do the least. G. C. (Georg Christoph) Lichtenberg Time 71
First there is a time when we believe everything, then for a little while we believe with discrimination, then we believe nothing whatever, and then we believe everything again - and, moreover, give reasons why we believe. G. C. (Georg Christoph) Lichtenberg Belief 71
There are very many people who read simply to prevent themselves from thinking. G. C. (Georg Christoph) Lichtenberg Reading 70
Once we know our weaknesses they cease to do us any harm. G. C. (Georg Christoph) Lichtenberg Perfection 69
Astronomy is perhaps the science whose discoveries owe least to chance, in which human understanding appears in its whole magnitude, and through which man can best learn how small he is. G. C. (Georg Christoph) Lichtenberg Astronomy 68
The proof that man is the noblest of all creatures is that no other creature has ever denied it. G. C. (Georg Christoph) Lichtenberg Mankind 68
The human tendency to regard little things as important has produced very many great things. G. C. (Georg Christoph) Lichtenberg Things 68
If we make a couple of discoveries here and there we need not believe things will go on like this for ever. Just as we hit water when we dig in the earth, so we discover the incomprehensible sooner or later. G. C. (Georg Christoph) Lichtenberg Discovery 67
There exists a species of transcendental ventriloquism by means of which men can be made to believe that something said on earth comes from Heaven. G. C. (Georg Christoph) Lichtenberg Prophecy 67
Delight at having understood a very abstract and obscure system leads most people to believe in the truth of what it demonstrates. G. C. (Georg Christoph) Lichtenberg Assumptions 67
Once the good man was dead, one wore his hat and another his sword as he had worn them, a third had himself barbered as he had, a fourth walked as he did, but the honest man that he was -- nobody any longer wanted to be that. G. C. (Georg Christoph) Lichtenberg Loyalty 66
He swallowed a lot of wisdom, but all of it seems to have gone down the wrong way. G. C. (Georg Christoph) Lichtenberg Wisdom 65
I am convinced we do not only love ourselves in others but hate ourselves in others too. G. C. (Georg Christoph) Lichtenberg People 64
One might call habit a moral friction: something that prevents the mind from gliding over things but connects it with them and makes it hard for it to free itself from them. G. C. (Georg Christoph) Lichtenberg Habits 63
The most perfect ape cannot draw an ape; only man can do that; but, likewise, only man regards the ability to do this as a sign of superiority. G. C. (Georg Christoph) Lichtenberg Superiority 61
People often become scholars for the same reason they become soldiers: simply because they are unfit for any other station. Their right hand has to earn them a livelihood; one might say they lie down like bears in winter and seek sustenance from their paws. G. C. (Georg Christoph) Lichtenberg Scholars 60
The most heated defenders of a science, who cannot endure the slightest sneer at it, are commonly those who have not made very much progress in it and are secretly aware of this defect. G. C. (Georg Christoph) Lichtenberg Science 59
To receive applause for works which do not demand all our powers hinders our advance towards a perfecting of our spirit. It usually means that thereafter we stand still. G. C. (Georg Christoph) Lichtenberg Praise 58

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