Georg Christoph Lichtenberg: Doing

“The motives that lead us to do anything might be arranged like the thirty-two winds and might be given names on the same pattern”

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

Referring to a diagrammatic "Compass of Motives", as quoted in Der Witz und seine Beziehung zum Unbewussten [Jokes and Their Relation to the Unconscious] (1905) by Sigmund Freud, as translated by James Strachey (1960), p. 101; also quoted by Freud in an open letter to Albert Einstein, Why War? (1933).
Variant translation: The motives that lead us to do anything might be arranged like the thirty-two winds and might be given names on the same pattern: for instance, "food-food-fame" or "fame-fame-food".
Context: The motives that lead us to do anything might be arranged like the thirty-two winds and might be given names on the same pattern: for instance, "bread-bread-fame" or "fame-fame-bread."

Motivation

“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 Christoph Lichtenberg

E 65
Aphorisms (1765-1799), Notebook E (1775 - 1776)

Lie , Books , Light , Reading

“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 Christoph Lichtenberg

G 30
Aphorisms (1765-1799), Notebook G (1779-1783)

Animals

“Once we know our weaknesses they cease to do us any harm.”

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

D 5
Aphorisms (1765-1799), Notebook D (1773-1775)

“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 Christoph Lichtenberg

L24
Aphorisms (1765-1799), Notebook L (1793-1796)

Search , Motivation

“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

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

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

D 96
Variant translation: To do just the opposite is also a form of imitation.
Aphorisms (1765-1799), Notebook D (1773-1775)

“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 Christoph Lichtenberg

L 44
Aphorisms (1765-1799), Notebook L (1793-1796)

Law

“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 Christoph Lichtenberg

J 115
Aphorisms (1765-1799), Notebook J (1789)

Drawing , Perfection

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

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

C 54
Variant translation: If all mankind were suddenly to practice honesty, many thousands of people would be sure to starve.
Aphorisms (1765-1799), Notebook C (1772-1773)

Hunger , People

“Reason now gazes above the realm of the dark but warm feelings as the Alpine peaks do above the clouds. They behold the sun more clearly and distinctly, but they are cold and unfruitful.”

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

L 50
Aphorisms (1765-1799), Notebook L (1793-1796)

Feeling , Sun

“We do not think good metaphors are anything very important, but I think that a good metaphor is something even the police should keep an eye on…”

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

E 91
Variant translation: A good metaphor is something even the police should keep an eye on.
Aphorisms (1765-1799), Notebook E (1775 - 1776)

Thinking

“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)