Quotes By Georg C. Lichtenberg

Doubt must be no more than vigilance, otherwise it can become dangerous.

A person reveals his character by nothing so clearly as the joke he resents.

We have no words for speaking of wisdom to the stupid. He who understands the wise is wise already.

Nothing makes one old so quickly as the ever-present thought that one is growing older.

The Greeks possessed a knowledge of human nature we seem hardly able to attain to without passing through the strengthening hibernation of a new barbarism.

The most perfect ape cannot draw an ape; only man can do that; but, likewise, only man regards the ability to do this as a sign of superiority.

Much can be inferred about a man from his mistress: in her one beholds his weaknesses and his dreams.

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.

Man is a masterpiece of creation if for no other reason than that, all the weight of evidence for determinism notwithstanding, he believes he has free will.

With most people disbelief in a thing is founded on a blind belief in some other thing.

To err is human also in so far as animals seldom or never err, or at least only the cleverest of them do so.

We are obliged to regard many of our original minds as crazy at least until we have become as clever as they are.

The most dangerous untruths are truths slightly distorted.

Nothing is more conducive to peace of mind than not having any opinion at all.

A book is a mirror: if an ape looks into it an apostle is hardly likely to look out.