One might call habit a moral friction: something that prevents the mind from gliding over things but connects it with them and makes it hard for it to free itself from them.
Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
Related One might call habit a moral friction: something that prevents the mind from gliding over things but... G. C. (GEORG CHRISTOPH) LICHTENBERG One might call habit a moral friction: something that prevents the mind from gliding over things but... GEORG C. LICHTENBERG Pain has creative power, Let the magic unfold... HENNA SOHAIL ... You asked how am I?? Really?? So you care about me?? or you just decided to ask to return it bac... DEYTH BANGER Old habit of mind is one of the toughest things to get away from in the world. It transmits itself l... MARK TWAIN Take a break of that which you enjoy and what you don't enjoy leave it. DEYTH BANGER Always Be Ready For Anything that Comes: Bananas, Chips, College, an Opportunity, so when it does yo... DANIEL OJEDA It is one thing for the human mind to extract from the phenomena of nature the laws which it has its... ARTHUR EDDINGTON It'a okay to take some break from the crucible steep of stairs that you want to try to achieve, as l... LAURE96 Drowning his misery with alcohol and junk food was like sticking plaster on an infected cut. It mask... JAY NORTHCOTE Find something that makes you happy and go for it. ZENDAYA Indecision is debilitating; it feeds upon itself; it is, one might almost say, habit-forming. Not on... H. A. HOPF Indecision is debilitating; it feeds upon itself; it is, one might almost say, habit-forming. Not ... H. A. HOPF Most people do not actually know how to think for themselves, and unfortunately that prevents them f... BRYANT H. MCGILL Most people do not actually know how to think for themselves, and unfortunately that prevents them f... BRYANT MCGILL Excess on occasion is exhilarating. It prevents moderation from acquiring the deadening effect of ... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM Excess on occasion is exhilarating. It prevents moderation from acquiring the deadening effect of a ... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM Excess on occasion is exhilarating. It prevents moderation from acquiring the deadening effect of a ... WILLIAM SOMERSET MAUGHAM It is a lie. ARTHUR MILLER If I can make 10 calls to find something out for one person, I don't mind because it saves them from... ANNE MURRAY A route differs from a road not only because it is solely intended for vehicles, but also because it... MILAN KUNDERA If you want one thing too much it’s likely to be a disappointment. The healthy way is to learn to ... LARRY MCMURTRY Better to feel nothing, to be numb, than to lose control. It's the only way I know to deal with it. JULIE KAGAWA Getting on with her life is important. But right now it may be more important to put the feelings ou... JENNIFER BROWN Sometimes shit's gotta be done and I just fuckin' do it! MANUEL MONGRAIN Stay away from drugs. They're not worth it. I've tried, but there's none of them that... RANDY NEWMAN Those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it SARA SHEPARD True realism consists in revealing the surprising things which habit keeps covered and prevents us f... JEAN COCTEAU My mind withdrew its thoughts from experience, extracting itself from the contradictory throng of se... SAINT AUGUSTINE My mind withdrew its thoughts from experience, extracting itself from the contradictory throng of se... SAINT AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO Sometimes people let the same problem make them miserable for years when they could just say, So ... ANDY WARHOL Now that it was safe to drag their relationship out into the light and examine it mercilessly it was... MONICA DICKENS The cigarettes you light one after another won’t help you forget her. FRANK SINATRA 28. Feelings are neither right nor wrong. It's what you do with them that causes the problems. JAMES C. DOBSON Instinct's the iron skeleton under all our ideas of free will. STEPHEN KING If something excites you, go for it. CHAD HURLEY I want to tell few things, I like the truth in all faces. why?? It's the truth one road and tha... DEYTH BANGER There is a paradox in pride: it makes some men ridiculous, but prevents others from becoming so. CHARLES CALEB COLTON There is a paradox in pride: it makes some men ridiculous, but prevents others from becoming so. CHARLES CALEB COLTON Western civilization, unfortunately, does not link knowledge and morality but rather, it connects kn... VINE DELORIA, JR. You might think killing people might them make them like them, but it doesn't. It just makes people ... TEAM STARKID To suggest that toxic sludge is good for fish because it prevents them from being caught by man is l... GEORGE RADANOVICH It is often woman who inspires us with the great things that she prevents us from accomplishing ALEXANDRE DUMAS PèRE It is often woman who inspires us with the great things that she prevents us from accomplishing ALEXANDRE DUMAS PèRE Laughter is important, not only because it makes us happy, it also has actual health benefits. And t... MARLO THOMAS The king may rule the kingdom, but it's the queen who moves the board. D.M. TIMNEY Since I've moved here a Chinese takeaway on the main street has ominiously renamed itself from whate... OLIVIA SUDJIC For me the thing that signals a great story is what we might call its autonomy, the fact that it det... JULIO CORTáZAR These are galvanized, steel poles and they're filled with a solid resin that prevents them from bein... AGENT MICHAEL GRAMLEY Tell them to teach them that when they call you nigger to make a rhyme with trigger it makes the gun... RALPH ELLISON To stand on the brink of what is coming, feeling eager, optimistic anticipation—with no feeli... ASK AND IT IS GIVEN Habit is a second nature which prevents us from knowing the first, of which it has neither the cruel... MARCEL PROUST There is this paradox in pride -- it makes some men ridiculous, but prevents others from becoming so... CHARLES CALEB COLTON There is this paradox in pride--it makes some men ridiculous, but prevents others from becoming so. CHARLES CALEB COLTON There is this paradox in pride it makes some men ridiculous, but prevents others from becoming so CHARLES CALEB COLTON I really learned about leadership from them. They told me things that maybe sometimes at first I did... JAY SEARS I feel that some people have a hard time with the truths around us, not only the sexual abuse by pri... CHARLES L. BAILEY JR. The important thing is with police manpower - if it can give them a different set of eyes, if it can... DEE STANLEY We may claim to believe in God, but we don't want to believe so much that it makes us different. CRAIG GROESCHEL I want affection and tenderness desperately, but there's something in me that prevents me from h... ETHEL WATERS From there it got tough and Canby was very good on the free-throw line. But again, our kids played h... JOE WALSH Using assistive technology with your child prevents your child from missing out on content solely be... SANDRA K. COOK The most brilliant propagandist technique will yield no success unless one fundamental principle is ... JOSEPH GOEBBELS Nets are generally defined as devices for capturing something. In a more narrow but more important s... JOSEPH B. WIRTHLIN Don't brag about the hard times, nor cry over them, but learn from them. JIM GENOVESE When I see something, I go for it. JACKEE HARRY The mind, in proportion as it is cut off from free communication with nature, with revelation, with ... WILLIAM ELLERY CHANNING However fiercely opposed one may be to the present order, an old respect for the idea of order itsel... ANTONIN ARTAUD But strangers and the poor may pluck for themselves the fruit from my tree: that causes less shame. ... FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE Eliminate something superfluous from your life. Break a habit. Do something that makes you feel inse... PIERO FERRUCCI Unless you have been very, very lucky, you have undoubtedly experienced events in your life that hav... LEMONY SNICKET If you don't appreciate me for who I am , I am totally over it!! KAT MORGAN It's just so awful. It was something they tried to stay away from and then it ends up killing them w... KARLA MUNDALE Do. Then talk. In that order. SOTERO M LOPEZ II If you want a revenge, don't hold it. It poisons you. Either you just let the grudge go, or mak... TOBA BETA You must be the person you have never had the courage to be. Gradually, you will discover that you a... PAULO COELHO It ends or it doesn't. That’s what you say. That’s how you get through it. The tu... CAITLYN SIEHL - I tak nieźle sobie pożyłem. - Co to za życie? – powiedział ojciec.- Nic tylko kłamstw... CHARLES BUKOWSKI [The ruling class] sees people in the working class as being almost animals. It sees itself as being... EDWARD BOND Don't Just Let it Happen, Make it Happen! JUAN A. JIMENEZ A thinking mind is not swallowed up by what it comes to know. It reaches out to grasp something rela... ANNE CARSON The revolutionary spirit is mighty convenient in this, that it frees one from all scruples as regard... JOSEPH CONRAD Feast of All Souls To some men it is hard seeing a call of God through difficulties; when if it... JOHN OWEN From where these kids have come from, and then to have something like that make ESPN, it just makes ... GREG VAUGHN I destroyed a lot of guitars trying to get them to do what I wanted, but I learned something from ev... EDDIE VAN HALEN It is easy and dismally enervating to think of opposition as merely perverse or actually evil -- far... JILL TWEEDIE It is easy and dismally enervating to think of opposition as merely perverse or actually evil -- far... JILL TWEEDIE People's enthusiasm for the kids and the coaches makes it easier for us to call on them. It doesn't ... DOUG MESSER This falsification prevents the receiver from knowing who sent this spam or from contacting them thr... JERRY KILGORE It is easy for anybody to call himself or herself a “Christian” but the truth is we respond from... SUNDAY ADELAJA I have never turned away a child because they couldn't pay. That doesn't mean I teach them for free,... DON MADDEN The Free Exercise Clause protects the individual from any coercive measure that encourages him towar... WILLIAM ORVILLE DOUGLAS Without love, things disperse around; love holds things tightly! It prevents them to move away and d... MEHMET MURAT ILDAN No’ might make them angry but it will make you free. NAYYIRAH WAHEED The role of the
Christian is to let other people know what Jesus has done, not to
think of themselve... LEWIS N. ROE Naturalistic atheism debunks itself. It
has no power to explain even some
of the most basic principl... LEWIS N. ROE It's important to understand that if
someone calls themselves a Christian, it does not automatically... LEWIS N. ROE I can't help believing that these things that come from the subconscious mind have a sort of tru... BRIAN ALDISS The same ocean of love became the ocean of sorrow in which I drowned...
-Anshika ANSHIKA JAIN I love my destruction.
Cause I still love the cause of my destruction
-Anshika ANSHIKA JAIN
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 First there is a time when we believe everything, then for a little while we believe with discrimina... 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 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