Gotthold Ephraim Lessing: Quotes about thinking

Gotthold Ephraim Lessing was writer, philosopher, publicist, and art critic. Explore interesting quotes on thinking.

Gotthold Ephraim Lessing: 36 quotes 19 likes

“Think wrongly, if you please, but in all cases think for yourself.”

Gotthold Ephraim Lessing

Thinking

“The worst of superstitions is to think
One's own most bearable.”

Gotthold Ephraim Lessing

Nathan the Wise (1779), Act IV, scene II http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext03/natws10.txt
Variant translation: The worst superstition is to consider our own tolerable.

Thinking

“It is infinitely difficult to know when and where one should stop, and for all but one in thousands the goal of their thinking is the point at which they have become tired of thinking.”

Gotthold Ephraim Lessing

Es ist unendlich schwer, zu wissen, wenn und wo man bleiben soll, und Tausenden für einen ist das Ziel ihres Nachdenkens die Stelle, wo sie des Nachdenkens müde geworden.
Letter to Moses Mendelssohn, January 9, 1771

Thinking