Georg Christoph Lichtenberg citations (151 citations, Page 3)

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)

“We often have need of a profound philosophy to restore to our feelings their original state of innocence, to find our way out of the rubble of things alien to us, to begin to feel for ourselves and to speak ourselves, and I might almost say to exist ourselves. Even if my philosophy does not extend to discovering anything new, it does nevertheless possess the courage to regard as questionable what has long been thought true.”

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Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

B 49
Aphorisms (1765-1799), Notebook B (1768-1771)

“Many things about our bodies would not seem to us so filthy and obscene if we did not have the idea of nobility in our heads.”

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Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

D 6
Aphorisms (1765-1799), Notebook D (1773-1775)

“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.”

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Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

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

“If it is permissible to write plays that are not intended to be seen, I should like to see who can prevent me from writing a book no one can read.”

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Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

F 1
Aphorisms (1765-1799), Notebook F (1776-1779)

“Food probably has a very great influence on the condition of men. Wine exercises a more visible influence, food does it more slowly but perhaps just as surely. Who knows if a well-prepared soup was not responsible for the pneumatic pump or a poor one for a war?”

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Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

A 14
Aphorisms (1765-1799), Notebook A (1765-1770)

“There are very many people who read simply to prevent themselves from thinking.”

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Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

G 29
Aphorisms (1765-1799), Notebook G (1779-1783)

“The great rule: If the little bit you have is nothing special in itself, at least find a way of saying it that is a little bit special.”

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Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

E 55
Aphorisms (1765-1799), Notebook E (1775 - 1776)

“The most successful tempters and thus the most dangerous are the deluded deluders.”

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Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

F 120
Aphorisms (1765-1799), Notebook F (1776-1779)

“Body and soul: a horse harnessed beside an ox.”

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Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

D 103
Aphorisms (1765-1799), Notebook D (1773-1775)

“The noble simplicity in the works of nature only too often originates in the noble shortsightedness of him who observes it.”

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Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

H 1
Aphorisms (1765-1799), Notebook H (1784-1788)

“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…”

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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)

“If you are going to build something in the air it is always better to build castles than houses of cards.”

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Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

F 39
Aphorisms (1765-1799), Notebook F (1776-1779)

“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.”

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Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

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

“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.”

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Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

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

“Do not commence your exercises in philosophy in those regions where an error can deliver you over to the executioner.”

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Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

C 16
Aphorisms (1765-1799), Notebook C (1772-1773)

“He was always smoothing and polishing himself, and in the end he became blunt before he was sharp.”

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Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

L 70
Aphorisms (1765-1799), Notebook L (1793-1796)

“To receive applause for works which do not demand all our powers hinders our advance towards a perfecting of our spirit. It usually means that thereafter we stand still.”

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Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

K 42
Aphorisms (1765-1799), Notebook K (1789-1793)

“He who says he hates every kind of flattery, and says it in earnest, certainly does not yet know every kind of flattery.”

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Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

K 41
Aphorisms (1765-1799), Notebook K (1789-1793)

“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.”

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Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

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

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

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Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

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

“If it were true what in the end would be gained? Nothing but another truth. Is this such a mighty advantage? We have enough old truths still to digest, and even these we would be quite unable to endure if we did not sometimes flavor them with lies.”

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Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

E 10
Aphorisms (1765-1799), Notebook E (1775 - 1776)

“Nothing makes one old so quickly as the ever-present thought that one is growing older.”

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Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

K 13
Aphorisms (1765-1799), Notebook K (1789-1793)

“It is almost everywhere the case that soon after it is begotten the greater part of human wisdom is laid to rest in repositories.”

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Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

K 37
Aphorisms (1765-1799), Notebook K (1789-1793)

“If all else fails, the character of a man can be recognized by nothing so surely as by a jest which he takes badly.”

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Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

K 46
Variant translation: A person reveals his character by nothing so clearly as the joke he resents.
Aphorisms (1765-1799), Notebook K (1789-1793)

“Nothing can contribute more to peace of soul than the lack of any opinion whatever.”

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Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

E 11
Variant translations: Nothing is more conducive to peace of mind than not having any opinion at all.
Nothing is more conducive to peace of mind than not having any opinions at all.
Nothing contributes more to a person's peace of mind than having no opinions at all.
Aphorisms (1765-1799), Notebook E (1775 - 1776)

“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.”

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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.”

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Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

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

“The pleasures of the imagination are as it were only drawings and models which are played with by poor people who cannot afford the real thing.”

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Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

C 38
Aphorisms (1765-1799), Notebook C (1772-1773)