Georg Christoph Lichtenberg quotes - page 3

Just as the performance of the vilest and most wicked deeds requires spirit and talent, so even the greatest demand a certain insensitivity which under other circumstances we would call stupidity. (Georg Christoph Lichtenberg)
Here take back the stuff that I am, nature, knead it back into the dough of being, make of me a bush, a cloud, whatever you will, even a man, only no longer make me me. View quote
Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
If all else fails, the character of a man can be recognized by nothing so surely as by a jest which he takes badly. View quote
Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
With prophecies the commentator is often a more important man than the prophet. View quote
Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
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. View quote
Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
To do the opposite of something is also a form of imitation, namely an imitation of its opposite. View quote
Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
The noble simplicity in the works of nature only too often originates in the noble shortsightedness of him who observes it. View quote
Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
With a pen in my hand I have successfully stormed bulwarks from which others armed with sword and excommunication have been repulsed. View quote
Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
Actual aristocracy cannot be abolished by any law: all the law can do is decree how it is to be imparted and who is to acquire it. View quote
Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
Man is to be found in reason, God in the passions. View quote
Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
Even truth needs to be clad in new garments if it is to appeal to a new age. (Georg Christoph Lichtenberg)
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? View quote
Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
Nowadays three witty turns of phrase and a lie make a writer. View quote
Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
To err is human also in so far as animals seldom or never err, or at least only the cleverest of them do so. View quote
Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
With most men, unbelief in one thing springs from blind belief in another. View quote
Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
Love is blind, but marriage restores its sight. View quote
Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
There are people who think that everything one does with a serious face is sensible. View quote
Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
When a book and a head collide and a hollow sound is heard, must it always have come from the book? View quote
Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
The most entertaining surface on earth is the human face. View quote
Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
One should never trust a person who, while assuring you of something, puts his hands on his heart. View quote
Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
He swallowed a lot of wisdom, but all of it seems to have gone down the wrong way. (Georg Christoph Lichtenberg)
Perhaps in time the so-called Dark Ages will be thought of as including our own. View quote
Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
A book is a mirror: if an ape looks into it an apostle is hardly likely to look out. View quote
Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
To grow wiser means to learn to know better and better the faults to which this instrument with which we feel and judge can be subject. View quote
Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
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... View quote
Georg Christoph Lichtenberg