G C Lichtenberg Quotes & Sayings

Pain warns us not to exert our limbs to the point of breaking them. How much knowledge would we not need to recognize this by the exercise of mere reason. — Georg C. Lichtenberg

I forget most of what I read, just as I do most of what I have eaten, but I know that both contribute no less to the conservation of my mind and my body on that account. — Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

Do we write books so that they shall merely be read? Don't we also write them for employment in the household? For one that is read from start to finish, thousands are leafed through, other thousands lie motionless, others are jammed against mouseholes, thrown at rats, others are stood on, sat on, drummed on, have gingerbread baked on them or are used to light pipes. — Georg C. Lichtenberg

Most subjects at universities are taught for no other purpose than that they may be re-taught when the students become teachers. — Georg C. Lichtenberg

The sure conviction that we could if we wanted to is the reason so many good minds are idle. — Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

There are very many people who read simply to prevent themselves from thinking. — Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

A person reveals his character by nothing so clearly as the joke he resents. — Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

What a blessing it would be if we could open and shut our ears ... as easily as we open and shut our eyes. — Georg C. Lichtenberg

Cultivate that kind of knowledge which enables us to discover for ourselves in case of need that which others have to read or be told of. — Georg C. Lichtenberg

It is astonishing how much the word infinitely is misused: everything is infinitely more beautiful, infinitely better, etc. The concept must have something pleasing about it, or its misuse could not have become so general. — Georg C. 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. — Georg C. Lichtenberg

It is a great shame; most of our words are misused tools / which often still smell of the mud in which previous owners / desecrated them. — Georg C. Lichtenberg

We now possess four principles of morality: 1) a philosophical: do good for its own sake, out of respect for the law; 2) a religious: do good because it is God's will, out of love of God; 3) a human: do good because it will promote your happiness, out of self-love; 4) a political: do good because it will promote the welfare of the society of which you are a part, out of love of society having regard to yourself. But is this not all one single principle, only viewed from different sides? — Georg C. Lichtenberg

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. — Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

Superstition originates among ordinary people in the early and all too zealous instruction they receive in religion: they hear of mysteries, miracles, deeds of the Devil, and consider it very probable that things of this sort could occur in everything anywhere. — Georg C. Lichtenberg

That man is the noblest creature may also be inferred from the fact that no other creature has yet contested this claim. — Georg C. Lichtenberg

Great men too make mistakes, and many among them do it so often that one is almost tempted to call them little men. — Georg C. Lichtenberg

A man is never more serious than when he praise himself. — Georg C. Lichtenberg

What concerns me alone I only think, what concerns my friends I tell them, what can be of interest to only a limited public I write, and what the world ought to know is printed ... — Georg C. Lichtenberg

Some people 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 14. — 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. — Georg C. Lichtenberg

There is something in our minds like sunshine and the weather, which is not under our control. When I write, the best things come to me from I know not where. — Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

To many people virtue consists chiefly in repenting faults, not in avoiding them. — Georg C. Lichtenberg

The fruits of philosophy are the important thing, not the philosophy itself. When we ask the time, we don't want to know how watches are made. — Georg C. Lichtenberg

Man is to be found in reason, God in the passions. — Georg C. Lichtenberg

It is hardly to be believed how spiritual reflections when mixed with a little physics can hold people's attention and give them a livelier idea of God than do the often ill-applied examples of his wrath. — Georg C. Lichtenberg

What you have been obliged to discover by yourself leaves a path in your mind which you can use again when the need arises. — Georg C. 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 C. Lichtenberg

Those who never have time do least — Georg C. Lichtenberg

In the world we live in, one fool makes many fools, but one sage only a few sages. — Georg C. Lichtenberg