GCGeorg Christoph Lichtenberg

32 collected words

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

Life dates: 1742 AD — 1799 AD

Name supplied in the contributor-provided quotation collection. Basic attribution label; identity, lifetime and quotation authenticity have not been independently verified.

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Quotations and sayings

01c. 1770 AD

If we thought more for ourselves we would have very many more bad books and very many more good ones.

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg / quote

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02c. 1770 AD

When they have discovered truth in nature they fling it into a book, where it is even worse hands.

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg / quote

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03c. 1770 AD

...if we gained only one incontestable truth every ten years from each of our philosophical writers the harvest we reaped would be sufficient.

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg / quote

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04c. 1770 AD

It is almost impossible to carry the torch of truth through a crowd without singeing somebody's beard.

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg / quote

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05c. 1770 AD

The most dangerous of all falsehoods is a slightly distorted truth.

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg / quote

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06c. 1770 AD

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 / quote

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07c. 1770 AD

Man…who lives in three places – in the past, in the present, and in the future – can be unhappy if one of these three is worthless. Religion has even added a fourth – eternity.

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg / quote

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08c. 1770 AD

Many are less fortunate than you’ may not be a roof to live under, but it will serve to retire beneath in the event of a shower.

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg / quote

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09c. 1770 AD

Where the frontier of science once was is now the centre.

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg / quote

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10c. 1770 AD

A book is a mirror: if an ape looks into it an apostle is hardly likely to look out.

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg / quote

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11c. 1770 AD

When a book and a head collide and a hollow sound is heard, must it always have come from the book?

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg / quote

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12c. 1770 AD

Libraries can in general be too narrow or too wide for the soul.

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg / quote

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13c. 1770 AD

There is no mistaking a good book when one meets it. It is like falling in love.

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg / quote

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14c. 1770 AD

If countries were named after the words you first hear when you go there, England would have to be called "Damn It".

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg / quote

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15c. 1770 AD

I would give something to know for precisely whom the deeds were really done, of which it is publicly stated they were done 'for the Fatherland'.

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg / quote

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16c. 1770 AD

Nothing is more conductive to peace of mind than not having any opinions at all.

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg / quote

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17c. 1770 AD

With most men, unbelief in one thing springs from blind belief in another.

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg / quote

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18c. 1770 AD

I am confident of my ability to demonstrate that one can sometimes believe in something and yet not believe in it. Nothing is less fathomable than the systems that motivate our actions.

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg / quote

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19c. 1770 AD

A person reveals his character by nothing so clearly as the joke he resents.

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg / quote

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20c. 1770 AD

Diogenes, filthily attired, paced across the splendid carpets in Plato's dwelling. Thus, said he, do I trample on the pride of Plato. Yes, Plato replied, but only with another kind of pride.

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg / quote

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21c. 1770 AD

The thoughts written on the walls of madhouses by their inmates might be worth publicizing.

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg / quote

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22c. 1770 AD

The highest level than can be reached by a mediocre but experienced mind is a talent for uncovering the weaknesses of those greater than itself.

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg / quote

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23c. 1770 AD

Everyone is a genius at least once a year. The real geniuses simply have their bright ideas closer together.

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg / quote

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24c. 1770 AD

Don't judge a man by his opinions, but what his opinions have made of him.

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg / quote

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