German scientist & satirist (1742-1799)
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
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
The noble simplicity in the works of nature only too often originates in the noble shortsightedness of him who observes it.
GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG
"Notebook H", Aphorisms
Before one blames, one should always find out whether one cannot excuse.
GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG
"Notebook K", Aphorisms
Nothing makes one old so quickly as the ever-present thought that one is growing older.
GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG
"Notebook K", Aphorisms
With most men, unbelief in one thing springs from blind belief in another.
GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG
"Notebook L", Aphorisms
The common individual always conforms to the prevailing opinion and the prevailing fashion; he regards the state in which everything now exists as the only possible one and passively accepts it all.... To the genius it always occurs to ask: Could this too not be false?
GEORG LICHTENBERG
The Waste Books
Knowledge acquired too rapidly and without being personally supplemented is never very productive.
GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG
The Reflections of Lichtenberg
Never trust a man who lays his hand on his heart when he assures you of anything.
GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG
The Reflections of Lichtenberg
Propositions on which all men are in agreement are true: if they are not true we have no truth at all.
GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG
The Waste Books
The most dangerous untruths are truths moderately distorted.
GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG
"Notebook H", Aphorisms
To live when you do not want to is dreadful, but it would be even more terrible to be immortal when you did not want to be. As things are, however, the whole ghastly burden is suspended from me by a thread which I can cut in two with a penny-knife.
GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG
The Waste Books
If an angel were ever to tell us anything of his philosophy I believe many propositions would sound like 2 times 2 equals 13.
GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG
"Notebook B", 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
The rules of grammar are mere human statutes, which is why when he speaks out of the possessed the Devil himself speaks bad Latin.
GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG
The Waste Books
Whenever he was required to use his reason he felt like someone who had always used his right hand but was now required to do something with his left.
GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG
"Notebook B", The Waste Books
Body and soul: a horse harnessed beside an ox.
GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG
"Notebook D", Aphorisms
Honor is infinitely more valuable than positions of honor.
GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG
"Golden Notebook", The Waste Books
Much reading has brought upon us a learned barbarism.
GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG
"Notebook F", Aphorisms
We judge nothing so hastily as character, and yet there is nothing over which we should be more cautious.... I have always found that the so-called bad people improve on closer acquaintance, while the good fall off.
GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG
The Reflections of Lichtenberg