List of Georg C. Lichtenberg Quotes

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.

The Fear Of Death Which Is Imprinted In Men Is At The Same Time A Great Expedient Heaven Employs To Hinder Them From Many Misdeeds: Many Things Are Left Undone For Fear Of Imperiling One's Life Or Health.

Here Take Back The Stuff That I Am, Nature, Knead It Back Into The Dough Of Being, Make Of Me A Bush, A Cloud, Whatever You Will, Even A Man, Only No Longer Make Me.

The Drive To Propagate Our Race Has Also Propagated A Lot Of Other Things

Many Things About Our Bodies Would Not Seem To Us So Filthy And Obscene If We Did Not Have The Idea Of Nobility In Our Heads.

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.

The Construction Of The Universe Is Certainly Very Much Easier To Explain Than Is That Of The Plant.

It Is Said That Truth Comes From The Mouths Of Fools And Children: I Wish Every Good Mind Which Feels An Inclination For Satire Would Reflect That The Finest Satirist Always Has Something Of Both In Him.

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?

To Make Astute People Believe One Is What One Is Not Is, In Most Cases, Harder Than Actually To Become What One Wishes To Appear.

Non Cogitant, Ergo Non Sunt.

How Might Letters Be Most Efficiently Copied So That The Blind Might Read Them With Their Fingers?

It Is A Dangerous Thing For The Perfecting Of Our Minds To Gain Applause By Works That Do Not Call Forth The Whole Of Our Energies; For In That Case One Generally Comes To A Standstill.

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.

There Are People Who Believe Everything Is Sane And Sensible That Is Done With A Solemn Face.

That Man Is The Noblest Creature May Also Be Inferred From The Fact That No Other Creature Has Yet Contested This Claim.

As I Take Up My Pen I Feel Myself So Full, So Equal To My Subject, And See My Book So Clearly Before Me In Embryo, I Would Almost Like To Try To Say It All In A Single Word.

Most Subjects At Universities Are Taught For No Other Purpose Than That They May Be Re-taught When The Students Become Teachers.

If An Angel Were To Tell Us About His Philosophy, I Believe Many Of His Statements Might Well Sound Like '2 X 2= 13'.

One Can Live In This World On Soothsaying But Not On Truth Saying.

I Look Upon Book Reviews As An Infantile Disease Which New-born Books Are Subject To.

Honor Is Infinitely More Valuable Than Positions Of Honor.

To Live When You Do Not Want To Is Dreadful, But It Would Be Even More Terrible To Be Immortal When You Did Not Want To Be. As Things Are, However, The Whole Ghastly Burden Is Suspended From Me By A Thread Which I Can Cut In Two With A Penny-knife.

Never Trust A Man Who Lays His Hand On His Heart When He Assures You Of Anything.