Glory Quotes

Georg C. Lichtenberg Quotes

Physicist · 1742 – 1799 · 75 quotes

Georg C. Lichtenberg Quotes About Nature

What is called an acute knowledge of human nature is mostly nothing but the observer's own weaknesses reflected back from others.

Georg C. Lichtenberg

The noble simplicity in the works of nature only too often originates in the noble shortsightedness of him who observes it.

Georg C. Lichtenberg

There exists a species of transcendental ventriloquism by means of which men can be made to believe that something said on earth comes from Heaven.

Georg C. Lichtenberg

We cannot remember too often that when we observe nature, and especially the ordering of nature, it is always ourselves alone we are observing.

Georg C. Lichtenberg

The Greeks possessed a knowledge of human nature we seem hardly able to attain to without passing through the strengthening hibernation of a new barbarism.

Georg C. 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

Georg C. Lichtenberg Quotes About Spiritual

Nothing can contribute more to peace of soul than the lack of any opinion whatever.

Georg C. Lichtenberg

To receive applause for works which do not demand all our powers hinders our advance towards a perfecting of our spirit. It usually means that thereafter we stand still.

Georg C. Lichtenberg

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 C. Lichtenberg

More Quotes by Georg C. Lichtenberg

We have no words for speaking of wisdom to the stupid. He who understands the wise is wise already.

Georg C. Lichtenberg

Even truth needs to be clad in new garments if it is to appeal to a new age.

Georg C. Lichtenberg

I am convinced we do not only love ourselves in others but hate ourselves in others too.

Georg C. Lichtenberg

There is no greater impediment to progress in the sciences than the desire to see it take place too quickly.

Georg C. Lichtenberg

God created man in His own image, says the Bible; philosophers reverse the process: they create God in theirs.

Georg C. 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.

Georg C. Lichtenberg

Never undertake anything for which you wouldn't have the courage to ask the blessings of heaven.

Georg C. Lichtenberg

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

Georg C. Lichtenberg

He who is in love with himself has at least this advantage - he won't encounter many rivals.

Georg C. Lichtenberg

Nothing is more conducive to peace of mind than not having any opinion at all.

Georg C. Lichtenberg

Much can be inferred about a man from his mistress: in her one beholds his weaknesses and his dreams.

Georg C. Lichtenberg

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

Georg C. Lichtenberg

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

Georg C. Lichtenberg

One must judge men not by their opinions, but by what their opinions have made of them.

Georg C. Lichtenberg

Nothing makes one old so quickly as the ever-present thought that one is growing older.

Georg C. Lichtenberg

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

Georg C. Lichtenberg

Man loves company - even if it is only that of a small burning candle.

Georg C. Lichtenberg

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.

Georg C. Lichtenberg

To do the opposite of something is also a form of imitation, namely an imitation of its opposite.

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

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.

Georg C. Lichtenberg

Perhaps in time the so-called Dark Ages will be thought of as including our own.

Georg C. Lichtenberg

With prophecies the commentator is often a more important man than the prophet.

Georg C. Lichtenberg

The human tendency to regard little things as important has produced very many great things.

Georg C. Lichtenberg

We accumulate our opinions at an age when our understanding is at its weakest.

Georg C. Lichtenberg

Many things about our bodies would not seem to us so filthy and obscene if we did not have the idea of nobility in our heads.

Georg C. Lichtenberg

Man is to be found in reason, God in the passions.

Georg C. Lichtenberg

We say that someone occupies an official position, whereas it is the official position that occupies him.

Georg C. Lichtenberg

If you are going to build something in the air it is always better to build castles than houses of cards.

Georg C. Lichtenberg

The fly that doesn't want to be swatted is most secure when it lights on the fly-swatter.

Georg C. Lichtenberg

I believe that man is in the last resort so free a being that his right to be what he believes himself to be cannot be contested.

Georg C. Lichtenberg

It is almost everywhere the case that soon after it is begotten the greater part of human wisdom is laid to rest in repositories.

Georg C. 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.

Georg C. Lichtenberg

Delight at having understood a very abstract and obscure system leads most people to believe in the truth of what it demonstrates.

Georg C. 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.

Georg C. Lichtenberg

With most people disbelief in a thing is founded on a blind belief in some other thing.

Georg C. Lichtenberg

If people should ever start to do only what is necessary millions would die of hunger.

Georg C. Lichtenberg

We are obliged to regard many of our original minds as crazy at least until we have become as clever as they are.

Georg C. Lichtenberg

A handful of soldiers is always better than a mouthful of arguments.

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

He who says he hates every kind of flattery, and says it in earnest, certainly does not yet know every kind of flattery.

Georg C. 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 C. Lichtenberg

There are very many people who read simply to prevent themselves from thinking.

Georg C. Lichtenberg

The American who first discovered Columbus made a bad discovery.

Georg C. Lichtenberg

Every man has his moral backside which he refrains from showing unless he has to and keeps covered as long as possible with the trousers of decorum.

Georg C. Lichtenberg

It is in the gift for employing all the vicissitudes of life to one's own advantage and to that of one's craft that a large part of genius consists.

Georg C. Lichtenberg

Nowadays three witty turns of phrase and a lie make a writer.

Georg C. Lichtenberg

With a pen in my hand I have successfully stormed bulwarks from which others armed with sword and excommunication have been repulsed.

Georg C. Lichtenberg

Browse 75 quotes attributed to Georg C. Lichtenberg, listed in the source data as a Physicist, organized around themes such as Nature, Spiritual, Writing. Use the topic links to explore similar quotes, or browse the full author collection in one place.