GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG QUOTES
German scientist & satirist (1742-1799)
The American who first discovered Columbus made a bad discovery.
GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG
"Notebook G", Aphorisms
No people are more conceited than those who depict their own feelings, especially if they happen to have a little prose at their command for the occasion.
GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG
The Reflections of Lichtenberg
The pleasures of the imagination are as it were only drawings and models which are played with by poor people who cannot afford the real thing.
GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG
"Notebook C", Aphorisms
We accumulate our opinions at an age when our understanding is at its weakest.
GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG
"Notebook H", Aphorisms
Once we know our weaknesses they cease to do us any harm.
GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG
"Notebook D", Aphorisms
Truly, men make too little use of their lives; and so it is no wonder that the world should still be in such a poor way.
GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG
The Reflections of Lichtenberg
The girl who reveals herself heart and soul to her friend reveals the secrets of the entire sex; for every girl is the guardian of the feminine mysteries.
GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG
The Reflections of Lichtenberg
The thoughts written on the walls of madhouses by their inmates might be worth publicizing.
GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG
The Waste Books
It is almost impossible to bear the torch of truth through a crowd without singeing somebody's beard.
GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG
"Notebook G", Aphorisms
Theologians always try to turn the Bible into a book without common sense.
G. C. LICHTENBERG
attributed, 20,000 Quips & Quotes
Much can be inferred about a man from his mistress: in her one beholds his weaknesses and his dreams.
GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG
"Notebook F", Aphorisms
Is it not strange that mankind should so willingly battle for religion and so unwillingly live according to its precepts?
GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG
The Reflections of Lichtenberg
What most clearly characterizes true freedom and its true employment is its misemployment.
GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG
"Notebook L", Aphorisms
The world is a body common to all men, changes to it bring about a change in the souls of all men who are turned towards that part of it at that moment.
GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG
The Waste Books
When a book and a head collide and a hollow sound is heard, must it always have come from the book?
GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG
"Notebook D", Aphorisms
A man always writes absolutely well whenever he writes in his own manner, but the wigmaker who tries to write like Gellert ... writes badly.
GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG
"Notebook B", The Waste Books
Doubt must be no more than vigilance, otherwise it can become dangerous.
GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG
"Notebook F", Aphorisms
Everyone who has ever written will have discovered that writing always awakens something which, though it lay within us, we failed clearly to recognize before.
GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG
"Notebook J", The Waste Books
I am convinced that we not only love ourselves in others, but hate ourselves in others too.
GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG
The Reflections of Lichtenberg
It is in most cases more difficult to make intelligent people believe that you are what you are not, than really to become what you would appear to be.
GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG
The Reflections of Lichtenberg