Georg Christoph Lichtenberg: Believer

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg was German scientist, satirist. Explore interesting quotes on believer.
Georg Christoph Lichtenberg: 274   quotes 3   likes

“There are people who believe everything is sane and sensible that is done with a solemn face.”

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

E 59
Variant translation: There are people who think that everything one does with a serious face is sensible...
Aphorisms (1765-1799), Notebook E (1775 - 1776)
Context: There are people who believe everything is sane and sensible that is done with a solemn face. … It is no great art to say something briefly when, like Tacitus, one has something to say; when one has nothing to say, however, and none the less writes a whole book and makes truth … into a liar — that I call an achievement.

People

“Affectation is a very good word when someone does not wish to confess to what he would none the less like to believe of himself.”

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

F 149
Aphorisms (1765-1799), Notebook F (1776-1779)

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

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

J 77
Aphorisms (1765-1799), Notebook J (1789)

People , Truth

“If we make a couple of discoveries here and there we need not believe things will go on like this for ever…. Just as we hit water when we dig in the earth, so we discover the incomprehensible sooner or later.”

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

F 82
Aphorisms (1765-1799), Notebook F (1776-1779)

Water

“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 Christoph Lichtenberg

A 11
Aphorisms (1765-1799), Notebook A (1765-1770)

God , People , Idea

“You believe that I run after the strange because I do not know the beautiful; no, it is because you do not know the beautiful that I seek the strange.”

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

F160
Aphorisms (1765-1799), Notebook F (1776-1779)

Beauty

“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 Christoph Lichtenberg

F 84
Aphorisms (1765-1799), Notebook F (1776-1779)

Men

“Man is a masterpiece of creation if for no other reason than that, all the weight of evidence for determinism notwithstanding, he believes he has free will.”

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

J 249
Aphorisms (1765-1799), Notebook J (1789)

“The "second sight" possessed by the Highlanders in Scotland is actually a foreknowledge of future events. I believe they possess this gift because they don't wear trousers… That is also why in all countries women are more prone to utter prophecies.”

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

L 26
Aphorisms (1765-1799), Notebook L (1793-1796)

Women , Future , Country

“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 Christoph Lichtenberg

L 98
Aphorisms (1765-1799), Notebook L (1793-1796)

“If an angel were ever to tell us anything of his philosophy I believe many propositions would sound like 2 times 2 equals 13.”

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

B 44
Aphorisms (1765-1799), Notebook B (1768-1771)

Angels , Time

“First we have to believe, and then we believe.”

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

K 55
Aphorisms (1765-1799), Notebook K (1789-1793)