German scientist & satirist (1742-1799)
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
"Notebook F", Aphorisms
He who says he hates all kinds of flattery, and says so in earnest, has undoubtedly not as yet become acquainted with all kinds of it, whether in substance or in form.
GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG
The Reflections of Lichtenberg
Her petticoat had stripes of broad red and blue and looked as though it had been made out of a stage-curtain. I would have paid a lot for a front seat, but there was no performance.
GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG
The Waste Books
He moved as slowly as an hour-hand in a crowd of second-hands.
GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG
The Waste Books
Even truth needs to be clad in new garments if it is to appeal to a new age.
GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG
"Notebook C", Aphorisms
What I do not like about our definitions of genius is that there is in them nothing of the day of judgment, nothing of resounding through eternity and nothing of the footsteps of the Almighty.
GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG
"Notebook E", Aphorisms
One use of dreams is that, unprejudiced by our often forced and artificial reflections, they represent the impartial outcome of our entire being.
GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG
"Notebook J", The Waste Books
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.
GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG
"Notebook F", Aphorisms
The great artifice of regarding small deviations from the truth as being the truth itself is at the same time the foundation of wit, where the whole thing would often collapse if we were to regard these deviations in a spirit of philosophical rigor.
GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG
The Waste Books
A handful of soldiers is always better than a mouthful of arguments.
GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG
"Notebook E", Aphorisms
We are obliged to regard many of our original minds as crazy -- at least until we have become as clever as they are.
GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG
"Notebook D", Aphorisms
With most men, unbelief in one thing springs from blind belief in another.
GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG
"Notebook L", Aphorisms
A book which, above all others in the world, should be forbidden, is a catalogue of forbidden books.
GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG
attributed, A Dictionary of Scientific Quotations
Honor is infinitely more valuable than positions of honor.
GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG
"Golden Notebook", The Waste Books
There is no greater impediment to progress in the sciences than the desire to see it take place too quickly.
GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG
"Notebook K", Aphorisms
The greatest things in the world are brought about by other things which we count as nothing: little causes we overlook but which at length accumulate.
GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG
The Waste Books
Man is perhaps half mind and half matter in the same way as the polyp is half plant and half animal. The strangest creatures are always found on the border lines of species.
GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG
The Reflections of Lichtenberg
The thoughts written on the walls of madhouses by their inmates might be worth publicizing.
GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG
The Waste Books
Is it so unjust that a man should leave the world by the same gate through which he entered it?
GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG
The Waste Books
There is something in the character of every man which cannot be broken in--the skeleton of his character; and to try to alter this is like training a sheep for draught purposes.
GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG
The Reflections of Lichtenberg