First there is a time when we believe everything, then for a little while we believe with discrimination, then we believe nothing whatever, and then we believe everything again - and, moreover, give reasons why we believe.

Copied!

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

Copied!

Create Short URL Publish Text About This Quote Share on Facebook, Twitter, and more

First there is a time when we believe everything, then for a little while we believe with discrimina...
G. C. (GEORG CHRISTOPH) LICHTENBERG

First we have to believe, and then we believe.
MARTHA GRAHAM

We have a right to believe whatever we want, but not everything we believe is right.
RAVI ZACHARIAS

If we believe in nothing, if nothing has any meaning and if we can affirm no values whatsoever, then...
ALBERT CAMUS When men stop believing in God, it isn't that they then believe in nothing: they believe in everythi...
UMBERTO ECO If you say that there was no first cause (a Creator), then you are stuck with the unscientific and t...
RAY COMFORT

To accomplish great things we must first dream, then visualize, then plan... believe... act!
ALFRED A. MONTAPERT I believe that everything we think and feel and do produces a result and that we have to deal with t...
SHYAM SELVADURAI

We have only to believe. And the more threatening and irreducible reality appears, the more firmly a...
PIERRE TEILHARD DE CHARDIN

If we believe in an all-powerful God, then we must then believe that God gave us this Earth, and we ...
SHELDON WHITEHOUSE

We will always have enough reasons to justify what we believe and what we do not believe.
M.F. MOONZAJER

We don't believe something by merely saying we believe it, or even when we believe that we believe i...
DALLAS WILLARD first believe in yourself and then people will believe in you
SOTONYE ANGA It's just like when they told me I'd never play football again. I just believe that we can do it. Wh...
GREG AUSTIN That's where we believe he could be at. But, then again, he could be anywhere.
LT. HUMBERTO LOPEZ

I believe in nothing, everything is sacred. I believe in everything, nothing is sacred.
TOM ROBBINS

The words you can’t find, you borrow.
We read to know we’re not alone. We read because w...
GABRIELLE ZEVIN Many people believe in superstitions, many believe in a coincidence, while some people believe every...
ADNAN BAHATTI When we die our deeds shall be left for humanity to judge & our flesh shall become dust for humanity...
DAVID ATTA (A.K.A DAVIED ATTLARS & MR DAIN) IF WE BELIEVE WE ARE MORTAL THEN WE WILL NOT BEHAVE AS IF WE ARE IMMORTAL !
DR.PRASAD RAJHANS I do believe there is life in outer space. Mathematically, there has to be, and if you believe as I ...
EUGENE CERNAN We believe in liberty, we believe in limited government, we believe in free enterprise, we believe i...
KURT BILLS When we first met with Schwarzenegger, we thought this was a moderate governor we could work with. T...
DAVID SANCHEZ Why should we believe in a god that doesn't believe in us?
MARILYN MANSON We played very good. I believe everything is going to go well. I believe we are in good shape and I ...
ANIBAL RELUZ Though we believe Dell can outperform the Nasdaq in 2000 after a poor 1999, we believe this can only...
DAN NILES We do not believe in immortality because we can prove it, but we try to prove it because we cannot h...
HARRIET MARTINEAU As we look at the landscape for the next several years, we believe all objects will be networked. Ev...
ERIC SHEPCARO Everything passes by, and we are left with just our memories
BEN OAK We want people to become educated about our water resources, and we believe that when we teach kids,...
EILEEN TRAMONTANA We believe this is a great project. We feel that if we can offer quality, affordable housing then pe...
BRIAN KELLEHER Believe in angels? Then believe in vampires. Believe in me. There are worse things on earth.
ANNE RICE All we have to believe with is our senses, the tools we use to perceive the world: our sight, our to...
NEIL GAIMAN It gives us hope. We still believe we can make a little run and get some wins in the next few games....
REUBEN DROUGHNS We believe this is the industry of the 21st century and is going to change everything about our live...
DIANA ROBINSON We believed then, and we believe even more strongly now, that it's the wrong development in the wron...
BROWNIE CARSON Every man gives his life for what he believes. Every woman gives her life for what she believes. Som...
JEANNE D'ARC You either have the feeling or you don’t.
DANIEL HANDLER If we don't believe in moral absolutes and then we get into a cultural-political debate, how are...
RANDALL TERRY Pentecost Every time we say, 'I believe in the Holy Spirit,' we mean that we believe that there i...
J. B. PHILLIPS You know, we have talked about that. It just matters what we believe. And we believe. If there are d...
KERRY JANQUART If we can believe in our own value, then we won't try to denigrate and diss and just roast women...
JIDENNA We shall not kill for what we believe, but we can die for what we believe
NATHANIEL KEITH GARCIA We can believe what we choose. We are answerable for what we choose to believe.
JOHN HENRY NEWMAN We can believe what we choose. We are answerable for what we choose to believe.
CARDINAL NEWMAN We believe in a balanced approach. We believe in an approach so that there are options for these vul...
CHRISTINE MELNICK When we own our beliefs, we have clear boundaries. We know what we believe and we know what others b...
PATTY HOUSER I believe that we do not know anything for certain, but everything probably.
CHRISTIAAN HUYGENS Oh, what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to believe.
LAURENCE J. PETER You believe in God, then you don't believe anymore and when you have a big problem, you pray anyway.
ALAIN DELON I believe in love. I believe in good stories. I play really hard on the weekends because I like to h...
CHANNING TATUM We soon believe the things we would believe.
LUDOVICO ARIOSTO We actually believe Windows 8 is the new era for the PC plus. We believe with a single push of a but...
B. KEVIN TURNER The essence of competitiveness is liberated when we make people believe that what they think and do ...
JACK WELCH Then you came along and helped me believe in myself again.
NICHOLAS SPARKS We have a tightly focused strategy; we are growing again; and we believe we can execute our plans on...
ERIC BENHAMOU Of course there is such a thing as too much doubt, for we ought to accept what is true. But there is...
J. BUDZISZEWSKI If you believe in predestination, then there is no reason to regret anything. If you believe in free...
TOBA BETA We believe in organizing and fundraising first.
JANE HEATH We believe the time for action is now.
GERI PALAST As a matter of principle, we believe patients should be able to see the right doctor at the right ti...
BILL FRIST We've got 9,300 (season ticket holders) here and we were at 6,000 when I was hired, ... I believe th...
BRIAN BURKE It is part of the democratic process. We say what we believe and learn what we can and then we make ...
JOE ELDER While we do not believe that the probability of a strike is as high as 50 percent, we do believe tha...
LLOYD O'CARROLL It's been a long time, and we believe the time is now for action.
GERI PALAST We must believe that it is the darkest before the dawn of a beautiful new world. We will see it when...
SAUL ALINSKY We believe, based on everything we see today, that we will fulfill our plans for production into the...
CRAIG MARTIN Que je croie; que tu croies; qu'il ou qu'elle croie. What a funny thing to say over and over again: ...
JOHN GREEN There is that gnawing feeling that we are far more than what we believe ourselves to be. Maybe it’...
CRAIG D. LOUNSBROUGH I believe that we parents must encourage our children to become educated, so they can get into a goo...
DAVE BARRY When you tell me your story or about yourself I understand who you are and are able to share who I a...
BRENT M. JONES Good cinema is what we can believe, and bad cinema is what we can't believe.
ABBAS KIAROSTAMI For in my tradition, as a Jew, I believe that whatever we receive we must share.
ELIE WIESEL You believe in God, then you don't believe anymore and when you have a big problem, you pray any...
ALAIN DELON We want to make a statement that we believe in Manatee County and we believe this is the place to wo...
RICHARD TAYLOR If you accept that pets can love us as much as we do them, then the logic is clear and cannot be den...
WALLACE SIFE We Liberal Democrats believe in dialogue. We believe in cooperation with both sides of industry and ...
CHARLES KENNEDY When men choose not to believe in God, they do not thereafter believe in nothing, they then become c...
G.K. CHESTERTON If Congress is unable to do its job and pass a federal budget, then I do not believe we should recei...
DAVID VALADAO I believe that Trump is a danger. I believe that he wants to tighten and build up his relationship t...
MAXINE WATERS we
sat there
smoking
cigarettes
at
5
in the morning.
CHARLES BUKOWSKI I believe there is the determination and the will to do it and I believe we will have a good day,
MO MOWLAM First and foremost, we believe in tax cuts,
JOHN KASICH I believe the only time when we can call for intervention is when there is an ongoing genocide.
BIANCA JAGGER Joan of Arc wrote, “I know this now. Every man gives his life for what he believes. Every woman gi...
MATTHEW KELLY There will come a time when you believe everything is finished. That will be the beginning.
LOUIS L'AMOUR There will come a time when you believe everything is finished. That will be the beginning.
LOUIS L'AMOUR There will come a time when you believe everything is finished. That will be the beginning.
LOUIS L'AMOUR There will come a time, When you believe everything is finished. That will be the beginning
PETER NIVIO ZARLENGA There will come a time when you believe everything is finished; that will be the beginning.
LOUIS L'AMOUR She is sugar, curiosity, and rain.
E. LOCKHART If you believe in victory, then victory will believe in you.
PAULO COELHO We don't believe there's a syndrome. We don't believe that the whole is greater than the sum of the ...
RICHARD KAHN I want to see what we can do when somebody challenges us, and I believe Beyer (the defending Modesto...
KIM EVANS We believe - we believe that, if we tell the people the truth, that they will act bigger than the pe...
CHRIS CHRISTIE We just couldn't believe it. After everything that Lisa and Marvin have gone through, then to have t...
LUCILLE CZECHANSKI We no longer believe because it is absurd: it is absurd because we must believe.
JULIO CORTáZAR We act on that which we believe to be true. Yet if our truths are false, then we only act on our imp...
CHRIS L. ANDREADIS If we pray, we will believe; If we believe, we will love; If we love, we will serve.
MOTHER TERESA Spending time looking for what is missing in your life is futile; if you fail to look within yoursel...
NICOLAS G. JANOVSKY

More Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

A book is a mirror: if an ape looks into it an apostle is hardly likely to look out.
GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG To do just the opposite is also a form of imitation.
GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG With most men, unbelief in one thing springs from blind belief in another.
GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG Everyone is a genius at least once a year. The real geniuses simply have their bright ideas closer t...
GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG One's first step in wisdom is to question everything - and one's last is to come to terms with every...
GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG With most people unbelief in one thing is founded upon blind belief in another.
GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG Nothing is more conducive to peace of mind than not having any opinions at all.
GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG Don't judge a man by his opinions, but what his opinions have made of him.
GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG What a blessing it would be if we could open and shut our ears as easily as we open and shut our eye...
GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG There are people who think that everything one does with a serious face is sensible.
GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG The worst thing you can possibly do is worrying and thinking about what you could have done.
GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG The proof that man is the noblest of all creatures is that no other creature has ever denied it.
GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG The human tendency to regard little things as important has produced very many great things.
GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG Perhaps in time the so-called Dark Ages will be thought of as including our own.
GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG One of the greatest creations of the human mind is the art of reviewing books without having read th...
GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG Nothing is more conducive to peace of mind than not having any opinion at all.
GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG Judge men not by their opinions, but by what their opinions have made of them.
GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG I cannot say whether things will get better if we change; what I can say is they must change if they...
GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG He who is in love with himself has at least this advantage - he won't encounter many rivals.
GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG Everyone is a genius at least once a year; a real genius has his original ideas closer together.
GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG A book is a mirror; if an ass peers into it, you can not expect an apostle to peer out.
GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG A person reveals his character by nothing so clearly as the joke he resents.
GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG When a book and a head collide and there is a hollow sound, is it always from the book?
GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG What a blessing it would be if we could open and shut our ears as easily as we open and shut our mou...
GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG An hour-glass is a reminder not only of time's quick flight, but also of the dust to which we must a...
GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG Some men come by the name of genius in the same way as an insect comes by the name of centipede - no...
GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG The man was such an intellectual he was of almost no use.
GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG Nothing is more conductive to peace of mind than not having any opinions at all.
GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG God created man in His own image, says the Bible; philosophers reverse the process: they create God ...
GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG The sure conviction that we could if we wanted to is the reason so many good minds are idle.
GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG The thoughts written on the walls of madhouses by their inmates might be worth publicizing.
GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG I cannot stop thinking that I died before I was born and that at my death I will return to the same ...
GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG A book is a mirror: If an ass peers into it, you can't expect an apostle to look out
GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG One might call habit a moral friction: something that prevents the mind from gliding over things but...
GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG Every man has his moral backside which he refrains from showing unless he has to and keeps covered a...
GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG What most clearly characterizes true freedom and its true employment is its misemployment.
GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG It is we who are the measure of what is strange and miraculous: if we sought a universal measure the...
GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG The noble simplicity in the works of nature only too often originates in the noble shortsightedness ...
GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG Many a man who is willing to be shot for his belief in a miracle would have doubted, had he been pre...
GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG You can make a good living from soothsaying, but not from truthsaying
GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG As nations improve, so do their gods
GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG Most men of education are more superstitious than they admit - nay, than they think
GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG Those who never have time do least
GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG A clever child brought up with a foolish one can itself become foolish. Man is so perfectible and co...
GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG It often takes more courage to change one's opinion than to stick to it.
GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG Man loves company even if only that of a small burning candle
GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG A good metaphor is something even the police should keep an eye on.
GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG Jedermann sollte wenigstens soviel Philosophie und schöne Wissenschaften studieren, als nötig ist,...
GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG The most dangerous of all falsehoods is a slightly distorted truth
GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG Much can be inferred about a man from his mistress: in her one beholds his weaknesses and his dreams...
GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG Man loves company even if it is only that of a small burning candle
GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG To read means to borrow; to create out of one's readings is paying off one's debts
GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG The most dangerous untruths are truths moderately distorted.
GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG If moderation is a fault then indifference is a crime
GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG To do just the opposite is also a form of imitation
GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG Erudition can produce foliage without bearing fruit.
GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG I cannot say whether things will get better if we change; what I can say is that they must change if...
GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG After all, is our idea of God anything more than personified incomprehensibility?

{Said i...
GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG Aujourd'hui, on cherche partout à répandre le savoir; qui sait si, dans quelques siècles, il n'y ...
GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG The drive to propagate our race has also propagated a lot of other things
GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG One's first step in wisdom is to question everything - and one's last is to come to terms with every...
GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG We say that someone occupies an official position, whereas it is the official position that occupies...
GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG It not seldom happens that in the purposeless rovings and wanderings of the imagination we hunt down...
GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG Prejudices are so to speak the mechanical instincts of men: through their prejudices they do without...
GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG The most dangerous of all falsehoods is a slightly distorted truth.
GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG The highest level than can be reached by a mediocre but experienced mind is a talent for uncovering ...
GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG In the weak, lack of strength to defend oneself passes over into complaining. This can be observed i...
GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG There are people who possess not so much genius as a certain talent for perceiving the desires of th...
GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG For the loss of those we have loved there is no alleviation but time and carefully and rationally ch...
GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG He who is enamoured of himself will at least have the advantage of being inconvenienced by few rival...
GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG Sometimes we know a person better than we can say, or at least than we do say.
GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG En la naturaleza no hay palabras, solamente iniciales. Al releer las nuevas "palabras", descubrimos ...
GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG Nothing is more inimical to the progress of science than the belief that we know what we do not yet ...
GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG It requires no especially great talent to write in such a way that another will be very hard put to ...
GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG We say that someone occupies an official position, whereas it is the official position that occupies...
GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG It makes a great difference by what path we come to a knowledge of certain things. If we begin in ou...
GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG Nothing makes one old so quickly as the ever-present thought that one is growing older
GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG Every condition of the soul has its own sign and expression...So you will see how hard it is to seem...
GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG Just as there are polysyllabic words that say very little, so there are also monosyllabic words of i...
GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG In his Comedy, Dante Alighieri names Virgil, with many tokens of respect, as his teacher, and...
GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG To make clever people believe we are what we are not is in most instances harder than really to beco...
GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG You can make a good living from soothsaying but not from truthsaying
GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG You believe I run after the strange because I do not know the beautiful; no, it is because you do no...
GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG If countries were named after the words you first hear when you go there, England would have to be c...
GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG I forget most of what I read, just as I do most of what I have eaten, but I know that both contribut...
GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG Whenever he composes a critical review, I have been told, he gets an enormous erection.
GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG There are very many people who read simply to prevent themselves from thinking.
GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG Nowadays three witty turns of phrase and a lie make a writer.
GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG No es que los oráculos hayan dejado de hablar, sino que los hombres han dejado de escucharlos.
GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG When a book and a head collide and a hollow sound is heard, must it always have come from the book?
GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG What I do not like about our definitions of genius is that there is in them nothing of the day of ju...
GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG To make a vow is a greater sin than to break one.
GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG Some people read because they are too lazy to think.
GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG Man…who lives in three places – in the past, in the present, and in the future – can be unhapp...
GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG Când ai de facut o lucrare, nu te gândi mereu la întregimea ei; executa fragmentul pe care-l ai �...
GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG We say that someone occupies an official position, whereas it is the official position that occupies...
G. C. (GEORG CHRISTOPH) LICHTENBERG There are very many people who read simply to prevent themselves from thinking.
G. C. (GEORG CHRISTOPH) LICHTENBERG Do we write books so that they shall merely be read? Don't we also write them for employment in the ...
G. C. (GEORG CHRISTOPH) LICHTENBERG A vacuum of ideas affects people differently than a vacuum of air, otherwise readers of books would ...
G. C. (GEORG CHRISTOPH) LICHTENBERG People who never have any time on their hands are those who do the least.
G. C. (GEORG CHRISTOPH) LICHTENBERG Theologians always try to turn the Bible into a book without common sense.
G. C. (GEORG CHRISTOPH) LICHTENBERG As I take up my pen I feel myself so full, so equal to my subject, and see my book so clearly before...
G. C. (GEORG CHRISTOPH) LICHTENBERG Nowadays three witty turns of phrase and a lie make a writer.
G. C. (GEORG CHRISTOPH) LICHTENBERG The sure conviction that we could if we wanted to is the reason so many good minds are idle.
G. C. (GEORG CHRISTOPH) LICHTENBERG I cannot say whether things will get better if we change; what I can say is they must change if they...
G. C. (GEORG CHRISTOPH) LICHTENBERG Man is a masterpiece of creation if for no other reason than that, all the weight of evidence for de...
G. C. (GEORG CHRISTOPH) LICHTENBERG What most clearly characterizes true freedom and its true employment is its misemployment.
G. C. (GEORG CHRISTOPH) LICHTENBERG Prejudices are so to speak the mechanical instincts of men: through their prejudices they do without...
G. C. (GEORG CHRISTOPH) LICHTENBERG To receive applause for works which do not demand all our powers hinders our advance towards a perfe...
G. C. (GEORG CHRISTOPH) LICHTENBERG A man is never more serious than when he praise himself.
G. C. (GEORG CHRISTOPH) LICHTENBERG Much can be inferred about a man from his mistress: in her one beholds his weaknesses and his dreams...
G. C. (GEORG CHRISTOPH) LICHTENBERG So-called professional mathematicians have, in their reliance on the relative incapacity of the rest...
G. C. (GEORG CHRISTOPH) LICHTENBERG As the few adepts in such things well know, universal morality is to be found in little everyday pen...
G. C. (GEORG CHRISTOPH) LICHTENBERG Every man has his moral backside which he refrains from showing unless he has to and keeps covered a...
G. C. (GEORG CHRISTOPH) LICHTENBERG To err is human also in so far as animals seldom or never err, or at least only the cleverest of the...
G. C. (GEORG CHRISTOPH) LICHTENBERG I have remarked very clearly that I am often of one opinion when I am lying down and of another when...
G. C. (GEORG CHRISTOPH) LICHTENBERG Man is a gregarious animal and much more so in his mind than in his body. A golden rule; judge men n...
G. C. (GEORG CHRISTOPH) LICHTENBERG We accumulate our opinions at an age when our understanding is at its weakest.
G. C. (GEORG CHRISTOPH) LICHTENBERG We cannot remember too often that when we observe nature, and especially the ordering of nature, it ...
G. C. (GEORG CHRISTOPH) LICHTENBERG We often have need of a profound philosophy to restore to our feelings their original state of innoc...
G. C. (GEORG CHRISTOPH) LICHTENBERG If this is philosophy it is at any rate a philosophy that is not in its right mind.
G. C. (GEORG CHRISTOPH) LICHTENBERG Once we know our weaknesses they cease to do us any harm.
G. C. (GEORG CHRISTOPH) LICHTENBERG In each of us there is a little of all of us.
G. C. (GEORG CHRISTOPH) LICHTENBERG I am convinced we do not only love ourselves in others but hate ourselves in others too.
G. C. (GEORG CHRISTOPH) LICHTENBERG The fly that does not want to be swatted is safest if it sits on the fly-swat.
G. C. (GEORG CHRISTOPH) LICHTENBERG We are obliged to regard many of our original minds as crazy at least until we have become as clever...
G. C. (GEORG CHRISTOPH) LICHTENBERG Just as the performance of the vilest and most wicked deeds requires spirit and talent, so even the ...
G. C. (GEORG CHRISTOPH) LICHTENBERG I believe that man is in the last resort so free a being that his right to be what he believes himse...
G. C. (GEORG CHRISTOPH) LICHTENBERG To grow wiser means to learn to know better and better the faults to which this instrument with whic...
G. C. (GEORG CHRISTOPH) LICHTENBERG There are people who believe everything is sane and sensible that is done with a solemn face.
G. C. (GEORG CHRISTOPH) LICHTENBERG If you are going to build something in the air it is always better to build castles than houses of c...
G. C. (GEORG CHRISTOPH) LICHTENBERG Many things about our bodies would not seem to us so filthy and obscene if we did not have the idea ...
G. C. (GEORG CHRISTOPH) LICHTENBERG The proof that man is the noblest of all creatures is that no other creature has ever denied it.
G. C. (GEORG CHRISTOPH) LICHTENBERG Erudition can produce foliage without bearing fruit.
G. C. (GEORG CHRISTOPH) LICHTENBERG Nothing can contribute more to peace of soul than the lack of any opinion whatever.
G. C. (GEORG CHRISTOPH) LICHTENBERG If moderation is a fault, then indifference is a crime.
G. C. (GEORG CHRISTOPH) LICHTENBERG It is in the gift for employing all the vicissitudes of life to one's own advantage and to that of o...
G. C. (GEORG CHRISTOPH) LICHTENBERG Rational free spirits are the light brigade who go on ahead and reconnoiter the ground which the hea...
G. C. (GEORG CHRISTOPH) LICHTENBERG First there is a time when we believe everything, then for a little while we believe with discrimina...
G. C. (GEORG CHRISTOPH) LICHTENBERG With most people disbelief in a thing is founded on a blind belief in some other thing.
G. C. (GEORG CHRISTOPH) LICHTENBERG With the majority of people unbelief in one thing is founded on the blind belief in another.
G. C. (GEORG CHRISTOPH) LICHTENBERG Delight at having understood a very abstract and obscure system leads most people to believe in the ...
G. C. (GEORG CHRISTOPH) LICHTENBERG Some theories are good for nothing except to be argued about.
G. C. (GEORG CHRISTOPH) LICHTENBERG A good metaphor is something even the police should keep an eye on.
G. C. (GEORG CHRISTOPH) LICHTENBERG With a pen in my hand I have successfully stormed bulwarks from which others armed with sword and ex...
G. C. (GEORG CHRISTOPH) LICHTENBERG If another Messiah was born he could hardly do so much good as the printing-press.
G. C. (GEORG CHRISTOPH) LICHTENBERG A book is a mirror; if an ass peers into it, you can not expect an apostle to peer out.
G. C. (GEORG CHRISTOPH) LICHTENBERG To be content with life -- or to live merrily, rather --all that is required is that we bestow on al...
G. C. (GEORG CHRISTOPH) LICHTENBERG There were honest people long before there were Christians and there are, God be praised, still hone...
G. C. (GEORG CHRISTOPH) LICHTENBERG A person reveals his character by nothing so clearly as the joke he resents.
G. C. (GEORG CHRISTOPH) LICHTENBERG Affectation is a very good word when someone does not wish to confess to what he would none the less...
G. C. (GEORG CHRISTOPH) LICHTENBERG Ideas too are a life and a world.
G. C. (GEORG CHRISTOPH) LICHTENBERG Cautiousness in judgment is nowadays to be recommended to each and every one: if we gained only one ...
G. C. (GEORG CHRISTOPH) LICHTENBERG If we make a couple of discoveries here and there we need not believe things will go on like this fo...
G. C. (GEORG CHRISTOPH) LICHTENBERG The American who first discovered Columbus made a bad discovery.
G. C. (GEORG CHRISTOPH) LICHTENBERG If all mankind were suddenly to practice honesty, many thousands of people would be sure to starve.
G. C. (GEORG CHRISTOPH) LICHTENBERG What is the good of drawing conclusions from experience? I don't deny we sometimes draw the right co...
G. C. (GEORG CHRISTOPH) LICHTENBERG Of all the inventions of man I doubt whether any was more easily accomplished than that of a Heaven.
G. C. (GEORG CHRISTOPH) LICHTENBERG One might call habit a moral friction: something that prevents the mind from gliding over things but...
G. C. (GEORG CHRISTOPH) LICHTENBERG There are people who possess not so much genius as a certain talent for perceiving the desires of th...
G. C. (GEORG CHRISTOPH) LICHTENBERG If all else fails, the character of a man can be recognized by nothing so surely as by a jest which ...
G. C. (GEORG CHRISTOPH) LICHTENBERG That man is the noblest creature may also be inferred from the fact that no other creature has yet c...
G. C. (GEORG CHRISTOPH) LICHTENBERG What is called an acute knowledge of human nature is mostly nothing but the observer's own weaknesse...
G. C. (GEORG CHRISTOPH) LICHTENBERG It is hardly to be believed how spiritual reflections when mixed with a little physics can hold peop...
G. C. (GEORG CHRISTOPH) LICHTENBERG He who is in love with himself has at least this advantage -- he won't encounter many rivals.
G. C. (GEORG CHRISTOPH) LICHTENBERG Even truth needs to be clad in new garments if it is to appeal to a new age.
G. C. (GEORG CHRISTOPH) LICHTENBERG What I do not like about our definitions of genius is that there is in them nothing of the day of ju...
G. C. (GEORG CHRISTOPH) LICHTENBERG Everyone is a genius at least once a year; a real genius has his original ideas closer together.
G. C. (GEORG CHRISTOPH) LICHTENBERG A clever child brought up with a foolish one can itself become foolish. Man is so perfectible and co...
G. C. (GEORG CHRISTOPH) LICHTENBERG If there were only turnips and potatoes in the world, someone would complain that plants grow the wr...
G. C. (GEORG CHRISTOPH) LICHTENBERG Food probably has a very great influence on the condition of men. Wine exercises a more visible infl...
G. C. (GEORG CHRISTOPH) LICHTENBERG The journalists have constructed for themselves a little wooden chapel, which they also call the Tem...
G. C. (GEORG CHRISTOPH) LICHTENBERG One cannot demand of a scholar that he show himself a scholar everywhere in society, but the whole t...
G. C. (GEORG CHRISTOPH) LICHTENBERG People often become scholars for the same reason they become soldiers: simply because they are unfit...
G. C. (GEORG CHRISTOPH) LICHTENBERG There is no more important rule of conduct in the world than this: attach yourself as much as you ca...
G. C. (GEORG CHRISTOPH) LICHTENBERG The most perfect ape cannot draw an ape; only man can do that; but, likewise, only man regards the a...
G. C. (GEORG CHRISTOPH) LICHTENBERG Here take back the stuff that I am, nature, knead it back into the dough of being, make of me a bush...
G. C. (GEORG CHRISTOPH) LICHTENBERG The most dangerous untruths are truths slightly distorted.
G. C. (GEORG CHRISTOPH) LICHTENBERG The most successful tempters and thus the most dangerous are the deluded deluders.
G. C. (GEORG CHRISTOPH) LICHTENBERG Once the good man was dead, one wore his hat and another his sword as he had worn them, a third had ...
G. C. (GEORG CHRISTOPH) LICHTENBERG It is almost everywhere the case that soon after it is begotten the greater part of human wisdom is ...
G. C. (GEORG CHRISTOPH) LICHTENBERG To do the opposite of something is also a form of imitation, namely an imitation of its opposite.
G. C. (GEORG CHRISTOPH) LICHTENBERG A handful of soldiers is always better than a mouthful of arguments.
G. C. (GEORG CHRISTOPH) LICHTENBERG Be wary of passing the judgment: obscure. To find something obscure poses no difficulty: elephants a...
G. C. (GEORG CHRISTOPH) LICHTENBERG Man is always partial and is quite right to be. Even impartiality is partial.
G. C. (GEORG CHRISTOPH) LICHTENBERG If people should ever start to do only what is necessary millions would die of hunger.
G. C. (GEORG CHRISTOPH) LICHTENBERG It is a question whether, when we break a murderer on the wheel, we do not fall into the error a chi...
G. C. (GEORG CHRISTOPH) LICHTENBERG He who says he hates every kind of flattery, and says it in earnest, certainly does not yet know eve...
G. C. (GEORG CHRISTOPH) LICHTENBERG Before we blame we should first see whether we cannot excuse.
G. C. (GEORG CHRISTOPH) LICHTENBERG The pleasures of the imagination are as it were only drawings and models which are played with by po...
G. C. (GEORG CHRISTOPH) LICHTENBERG We can see nothing whatever of the soul unless it is visible in the expression of the countenance; o...
G. C. (GEORG CHRISTOPH) LICHTENBERG It is no great art to say something briefly when, like Tacitus, one has something to say; when one h...
G. C. (GEORG CHRISTOPH) LICHTENBERG Astronomy is perhaps the science whose discoveries owe least to chance, in which human understanding...
G. C. (GEORG CHRISTOPH) LICHTENBERG Actual aristocracy cannot be abolished by any law: all the law can do is decree how it is to be impa...
G. C. (GEORG CHRISTOPH) LICHTENBERG If an angel were ever to tell us anything of his philosophy I believe many propositions would sound ...
G. C. (GEORG CHRISTOPH) LICHTENBERG The most heated defenders of a science, who cannot endure the slightest sneer at it, are commonly th...
G. C. (GEORG CHRISTOPH) LICHTENBERG There is no greater impediment to progress in the sciences than the desire to see it take place too ...
G. C. (GEORG CHRISTOPH) LICHTENBERG It is said that truth comes from the mouths of fools and children: I wish every good mind which feel...
G. C. (GEORG CHRISTOPH) LICHTENBERG The greatest events occur without intention playing any part in them; chance makes good mistakes and...
G. C. (GEORG CHRISTOPH) LICHTENBERG He was always smoothing and polishing himself, and in the end he became blunt before he was sharp.
G. C. (GEORG CHRISTOPH) LICHTENBERG

First there is a time when we believe everything, then for a little while we believe with discrimination, then we believe nothing whatever, and then we believe everything again - and, moreover, give reasons why we believe.

Copied!

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

First there is a time when we believe everything, then for a little while we believe with discrimination, then we believe nothing whatever, and then we believe everything again - and, moreover, give reasons why we believe.

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

Share:

Related

More Georg Christoph Lichtenberg