Georg Christoph Lichtenberg: Other

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

“A book which, above all others in the world, should be forbidden, is a catalogue of forbidden books.”

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

As quoted in A Dictionary of Scientific Quotations (1991) edited by Alan Lindsay Mackay, p. 153

Books , World

“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

“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 Christoph Lichtenberg

B 41
Aphorisms (1765-1799), Notebook B (1768-1771)

People , Lie , Winter

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

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

E 76
Aphorisms (1765-1799), Notebook E (1775 - 1776)

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

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

G 7
Aphorisms (1765-1799), Notebook G (1779-1783)

Nature , Knowledge

“Cultivate that kind of knowledge which enables us to discover for ourselves in case of need that which others have to read or be told of.”

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

D 89
Aphorisms (1765-1799), Notebook D (1773-1775)

Knowledge , Reading

“There are two ways of extending life: firstly by moving the two points "born" and "died" farther away from one another… The other method is to go more slowly and leave the two points wherever God wills they should be, and this method is for the philosophers.”

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

B 22
Aphorisms (1765-1799), Notebook B (1768-1771)

Life , God , Way

“He who knows himself properly can very soon learn to know all other men. It is all reflection.”

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

G 8
Aphorisms (1765-1799), Notebook G (1779-1783)

Men , Learning

“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)

“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 Christoph Lichtenberg

F 87
Aphorisms (1765-1799), Notebook F (1776-1779)

Stupidity

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

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

F 54
Aphorisms (1765-1799), Notebook F (1776-1779)

Love , Hate

“That man is the noblest creature may also be inferred from the fact that no other creature has yet contested this claim.”

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

D 58
The proof that man is the noblest of all creatures is that no other creature has ever denied it.
Aphorisms (1765-1799), Notebook D (1773-1775)