Georg C. Lichtenberg Quotes - Page 5

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

  Georg C. Lichtenberg

  Dream, Men, Mistress

  "Aphorisms". Book by Georg Christoph Lichtenberg. Notebook F 88, 1799.

  17 Copy quote

• 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 C. Lichtenberg

  Men, Use, World

  4 Copy quote

• 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 C. Lichtenberg

  Writing, Men, Trying

  4 Copy quote

• One might call habit a moral friction: something that prevents the mind from gliding over things but connects it with them and makes it hard for it to free itself from them.

  Georg C. Lichtenberg

  Mind, Gliding, Might

  "Aphorisms". Book by Georg Christoph Lichtenberg. Notebook A 10, 1799.

  87 Copy quote

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

  Georg C. Lichtenberg

  Religion, Important, Gardening

  "Aphorisms". Book by Georg Christoph Lichtenberg. Notebook G 46, 1799.

  7 Copy quote

• The journalists have constructed for themselves a little wooden chapel, which they also call the Temple of Fame, in which they put up and take down portraits all day long and make such a hammering you can't hear yourself speak.

  Georg C. Lichtenberg

  Long, Portraits, Littles

  "Aphorisms". Book by Georg Christoph Lichtenberg. Notebook D 20, 1799.

  7 Copy quote

• People often become scholars for the same reason they become soldiers: simply because they are unfit for any other station. Their right hand has to earn them a livelihood; one might say they lie down like bears in winter and seek sustenance from their paws.

  Georg C. Lichtenberg

  Lying, Winter, Hands

  "Aphorisms". Book by Georg Christoph Lichtenberg. Notebook B 41, 1799.

  5 Copy quote

• Bad writers are those who try to express their own feeble ideas in the language of good ones.

  Georg C. Lichtenberg

  Writing, Ideas, Trying

  4 Copy quote

• A man is never more serious than when he praise himself.

  Georg C. Lichtenberg

  Men, Serious, Praise

  8 Copy quote

• A good part of the fame of most celebrated men is due to the shortsightedness of their admirers

  Georg C. Lichtenberg

  Men, Fame, Admirer

  4 Copy quote

• After all, is our idea of God anything more than personified incomprehensibility?

  Georg C. Lichtenberg

  God, Ideas

  4 Copy quote

• The most entertaining surface on earth is the human face.

  Georg C. Lichtenberg

  Earth, Faces, Surface

  4 Copy quote

• It is with epigrams as with other inventions; the best ones annoy us because we didn't think of them ourselves.

  Georg C. Lichtenberg

  Thinking, Annoying, Invention

  8 Copy quote

• Universal morality is to be found in little everyday penny-events just as much as in great ones.

  Georg C. Lichtenberg

  Everyday, Littles, Pennies

  "Aphorisms". Book by Georg Christoph Lichtenberg. Notebook B 33, 1799.

  4 Copy quote

• The writer who cannot sometimes throw away a thought about which another man would have written dissertations, without worry whether or not the reader will find it, will never become a great writer.

  Georg C. Lichtenberg

  Writing, Men, Worry

  4 Copy quote

• The more experiences and experiments accumulate in the exploration of nature, the more precarious the theories become. But it is not always good to discard them immediately on this account. For every hypothesis which once was sound was useful for thinking of previous phenomena in the proper interrelations and for keeping them in context. We ought to set down contradictory experiences separately, until enough have accumulated to make building a new structure worthwhile.

  Georg C. Lichtenberg

  Nature, Science, Thinking

  7 Copy quote

• Honest unaffected distrust of human abilities under all circumstances is the surest sign of strength of mind.

  Georg C. Lichtenberg

  Mind, Honest, Distrust

  4 Copy quote

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

  Georg C. Lichtenberg

  Inspirational, Peace, Thinking

  "Aphorisms". Book by Georg Christoph Lichtenberg. Notebook E 11, 1799.

  7 Copy quote

• As nations improve, so do their gods.

  Georg C. Lichtenberg

  Nations

  4 Copy quote

• Those who have racked their brains to discover new proofs have perhaps been induced to do so by a compulsion they could not quite explain to themselves. Instead of giving us their new proofs they should have explained to us the motivation that constrained them to search for them.

  Georg C. Lichtenberg

  Motivation, Should Have, Giving

  "Aphorisms" by Georg C. Lichtenberg, ("Notebook L", L 24), (1793-1796).

  4 Copy quote

• The natural scientists of the previous age knew less than we do and believed they were very close to the goal: we have taken very great steps in its direction and now discover we are still very far away from it. With the most rational philosophers an increase in their knowledge is always attended by an increased conviction of their ignorance.

  Georg C. Lichtenberg

  Taken, Ignorance, Science

  4 Copy quote

• 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

  Spiritual, Reflection, Wrath

  "Aphorisms". Book by Georg Christoph Lichtenberg. Notebook A 11, 1799.

  6 Copy quote

• I have often noticed that when people come to understand a mathematical proposition in some other way than that of the ordinary demonstration, they promptly say, "Oh, I see. That's how it must be." This is a sign that they explain it to themselves from within their own system.

  Georg C. Lichtenberg

  Math, People, Understanding

  7 Copy quote

• The lower classes of men, though they do not think it worthwhile to record what they perceive, nevertheless perceive everything that is worth noting; the difference between them and a man of learning often consists in nothing more than the latter's facility for expression.

  Georg C. Lichtenberg

  Thinking, Men, Expression

  9 Copy quote

• To be content with life or to live merrily, rather all that is required is that we bestow on all things only a fleeting, superficial glance; the more thoughtful we become the more earnest we grow.

  Georg C. Lichtenberg

  Thoughtful, Superficial Things, Fleeting

  "Aphorisms". Book by Georg Christoph Lichtenberg. Notebook K 29, 1799.

  10 Copy quote

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