Georg Christoph Lichtenberg Quotes

215 Sourced Quotes

A good means to discovery is to take away certain parts of a system to find out how the rest behaves.

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
He marvelled at the fact that the cats had two holes cut in their fur at precisely the spot where their eyes were.

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
We have to believe that everything has a cause, as the spider spins its web in order to catch flies. But it does this before it knows there are such things as flies.

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
As the few adepts in such things well know, universal morality is to be found in little everyday penny-events just as much as in great ones. There is so much goodness and ingenuity in a raindrop that an apothecary wouldn't let it go for less than half-a-crown.

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
Perseverance can lend the appearance of dignity and grandeur to many actions, just as silence in company affords wisdom and apparent intelligence to a stupid person.

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
Erudition can produce foliage without bearing fruit.

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
I have written a good number of drafts and small reflections. They are not waiting for the last touch but for the sunlight to wake them up.

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 himself barbered as he had, a fourth walked as he did, but the honest man that he was — nobody any longer wanted to be that.

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
Where the frontier of science once was is now the centre.

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
Once we know our weaknesses they cease to do us any harm.

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
One has to do something new in order to see something new.

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
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.

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
With a pen in my hand I have successfully stormed bulwarks from which others armed with sword and excommunication have been repulsed.

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
It is almost everywhere the case that soon after it is begotten the greater part of human wisdom is laid to rest in repositories.

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
Actual aristocracy cannot be abolished by any law: all the law can do is decree how it is to be imparted and who is to acquire it.

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
He was then in his fifty-fourth year, when even in the case of poets reason and passion begin to discuss a peace treaty and usually conclude it not very long afterwards.

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
The thing that astonished him was that cats should have two holes cut in their coat exactly at the place where their eyes are.

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
What I do not like about our definitions of genius is that there is in them nothing of the day of judgment, nothing of resounding through eternity and nothing of the footsteps of the Almighty.

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

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
What makes our poetry so contemptible nowadays is its paucity of ideas. If you want to be read, invent. Who the Devil wouldn't like to read something new?

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

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
People often become scholars for the same reason they become soldiers: simply because they are unfit for any other station. Their right hand has to earn them a livelihood; one might say they lie down like bears in winter and seek sustenance from their paws.

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
What they call 'heart' lies much lower than the fourth waistcoat button.

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
Rational free spirits are the light brigade who go on ahead and reconnoitre the ground which the heavy brigade of the orthodox will eventually occupy.

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
He who is enamored of himself will at least have the advantage of being inconvenienced by few rivals.

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
If people should ever start to do only what is necessary millions would die of hunger.

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
We say that someone occupies an official position, whereas it is the official position that occupies him.

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
We do not think good metaphors are anything very important, but I think that a good metaphor is something even the police should keep an eye on...

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
The "second sight" possessed by the Highlanders in Scotland is actually a foreknowledge of future events. I believe they possess this gift because they don't wear trousers... That is also why in all countries women are more prone to utter prophecies.

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
Reason now gazes above the realm of the dark but warm feelings as the Alpine peaks do above the clouds. They behold the sun more clearly and distinctly, but they are cold and unfruitful.

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg