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Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
(July 1, 1742 - February 24, 1799) Philosopher, Scientist, Mathematician, Writer, Satirist
Attributed:
- A book is a mirror: If an ass peers into it, you can't expect an apostle to look out.
- A person reveals his character by nothing so clearly as the joke he resents.
- Affectation is a very good word when someone does not wish to confess to what he would none the less like to believe of himself.
- As I take up my pen I feel myself so full, so equal to my subject, and see my book so clearly before me in embryo, I would almost like to try to say it all in a single word.
- As nations improve, so do their gods.
- Courage, garrulousness and the mob are on our side. What more do we want?
- Even the gentlest, most modest and best of girls are always better, gentler and more modest if their mirrors have told them they are looking more beautiful than ever.
- Everyone is a genius at least once a year. The real geniuses simply have their bright ideas closer together.
- 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.
- First we have to believe, and then we believe.
- God created man in His own image, says the Bible; philosophers reverse the process: they create God in theirs.
- He was always smoothing and polishing himself, and in the end he became blunt before he was sharp.
- He who is enamored of himself will at least have the advantage of being inconvenienced by few rivals.
- Variant: He who is in love with himself has at least this advantage— he won't encounter many rivals.
- I cannot say whether things will get better if we change; what I can say is they must change if they are to get better.
- 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...
- I have scattered seeds of ideas on almost every page which, if they fall on the right soil, may grow into chapters and even whole dissertations.
- If all mankind were suddenly to practice honesty, many thousands of people would be sure to starve.
- Variant: If people should ever start to do only what is necessary millions would die of hunger.
- If moderation is a fault, then indifference is a crime.
- If this is philosophy it is at any rate a philosophy that is not in its right mind.
- 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.
- If you are going to build something in the air it is always better to build castles than houses of cards.
- It is a golden rule not to judge men by their opinions but rather by what their opinions make of them.
- Variant: One must judge men not by their opinions, but by what their opinions have made of them.
- Variant: Don't judge a man by his opinions, but by what his opinions have made of him.
- It is almost impossible to bear the torch of truth through a crowd without singeing somebody’s beard.
- It is no great art to say something briefly when, like Tacitus, one has something to say; when one has nothing to say, however, and none the less writes a whole book and makes truth into a liar— that I call an achievement.
- Just as we outgrow a pair of trousers, we outgrow acquaintances, libraries, principles, etc., at times before they're worn out and times— and this is the worst of all— before we have new ones.
- Man can acquire accomplishments or he can become an animal, whichever he wants. God makes the animals, man makes himself.
- Man is always partial and is quite right to be. Even impartiality is partial.
- Man is to be found in reason, God in the passions.
- Man loves company— even if it is only that of a small burning candle.
- Men still have to be governed by deception.
- Most subjects at universities are taught for no other purpose than that they may be retaught when the students become teachers.
- My head lies at least a foot closer to my heart than is the case with other men: that is why I am so reasonable.
- My inquiries into physics could perhaps be given the title: legacies. For people do also bequeath trifles, after all.
- These "trifles" for which he could find no practical use included the principles used in all modern xerographic copiers and printers.
- Never undertake anything for which you wouldn't have the courage to ask the blessing of heaven.
- Not only did he not believe in ghosts, he wasn't even afraid of them.
- Nothing is more conducive to peace of mind than not having any opinion at all.
- Variant: Nothing contributes more to a person's peace of mind than having no opinions at all.
- Once we know our weaknesses they cease to do us any harm.
- 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.
- One's first step in wisdom is to question everything— and one's last is to come to terms with everything.
- Perhaps in time the so-called Dark Ages will be thought of as including our own.
- Perhaps in time the so-called Dark Ages will be thought of as including our own.
- Some people read because they are too lazy to think.
- Sometimes men come by the name of genius in the same way that certain insects come by the name of centipede— not because they have a hundred feet, but because most people can't count above fourteen.
- The expression divine service should cease to be applied to church attendance and be applied instead to good deeds.
- The fly that doesn't want to be swatted is most secure when it lights on the fly-swatter.
- The grave is still the best shelter against the storms of destiny.
- The great rule: If the little bit you have is nothing special in itself, at least find a way of saying it that is a little bit special.
- The human tendency to regard little things as important has produced very many great things.
- The most dangerous untruths are truths moderately distorted.
- 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.
- The most successful tempters and thus the most dangerous are the deluded deluders.
- The proof that man is the noblest of all creatures is that no other creature has ever denied it.
- Theologians always try to turn the Bible into a book without common sense.
- There are people who think that everything one does with a serious face is sensible.
- There are two ways of extending life: firstly by moving the two points "born" and "died" farther away from one another... The other method is to go more slowly and leave the two points wherever God wills they should be, and this method is for the philosophers.
- There can hardly be stranger wares in the world than books: printed by people who do not understand them; sold by people who do not understand them; bound, reviewed and read by people who do not understand them; and now even written by people who do not understand them.
- There is a great difference between still believing something and again believing it.
- Those who never have time do least.
- To do just the opposite is also a form of imitation.
- To err is human also in so far as animals seldom or never err, or at least only the cleverest of them do so.
- Virtue by premeditation isn't worth much.
- We cannot remember too often that when we observe nature, and especially the ordering of nature, it is always ourselves alone we are observing.
- We have no words for speaking of wisdom to the stupid. He who understands the wise is wise already.
- We must not seek to abstract from the busts of the great Greeks and Romans rules for the visible form of genius as long as we cannot contrast them with Greek blockheads.
- What a blessing it would be if we could open and shut our ears as easily as we open and shut our eyes!
- What is the good of drawing conclusions from experience? I don't deny we sometimes draw the right conclusions, but don't we just as often draw the wrong ones?
- What most clearly characterizes true freedom and its true employment is its misemployment.
- Why are young widows in mourning so beautiful? (Look into it.)
- With a pen in my hand I have successfully stormed bulwarks from which others armed with sword and excommunication have been repulsed.
- With most men, unbelief in one thing springs from blind belief in another.
- The preaching in the churches does not make the lightning rods on them unnecessary.
Quotes about Lichtenberg:
- We may use Lichtenberg’s writings as the most wonderful dowsing rod: wherever he makes a joke, there a problem lies hidden.
- He is not a household name. He is something rarer: a name savored by household names.
- Lichtenberg digs deeper than anyone… . He speaks from the subterranean depths. Only he who himself digs deep hears him.
External Links:
German language sites:
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