Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

Germany
1 Jul 1742 // 24 Feb 1799
Scientist / Writer

Quotes

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It is almost impossible to carry the torch of wisdom through a crowd without singeing someone's beard
With prophecies the commentator is often a more important man than the prophet
What is the good of drawing conclusions from experience? I don't deny we sometimes draw the right conclusions, but don't we just as often draw the wrong ones?
We have no words for speaking of wisdom to the stupid. He who understands the wise is wise already
We are obliged to regard many of our original minds as crazy at least until we have become as clever as they are
We accumulate our opinions at an age when our understanding is at its weakest
Virtue by premeditation isn't worth much
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
To grow wiser means to learn to know better and better the faults to which this instrument with which we feel and judge can be subject
To err is human also in so far as animals seldom or never err, or at least only the cleverest of them do so
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On Anger: "For every minute you remain angry, you give up sixty seconds of peace of mind."
Essays
On Destiny: "Our destiny exercises its influence over us even when, as yet, we have not learned its nature: it is our future that lays down the law of our today."
Human, All Too Human
On Friendship: "A crowd is not company; and faces are but a gallery of pictures; and talk but a tinkling cymbal, where there is no love."
Essays