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Quotes from Aphorisms — Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

1742–1799 Germany

← All quotes by Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

126 quotes

The noble simplicity in the works of nature only too often originates in the noble shortsightedness of him who observes it.

Aphorisms (1765)

Affectation is a very good word when someone does not wish to confess to what he would none the less like to believe of himself.

Aphorisms (1765)

A handful of soldiers is always better than a mouthful of arguments.

Aphorisms (1765)

There exists a species of transcendental ventriloquism by means of which men can be made to believe that something said on earth comes from Heaven.

Aphorisms (1765)

Body and soul: a horse harnessed beside an ox.

Aphorisms (1765)

Virtue by premeditation isn't worth much.

Aphorisms (1765)

It is we who are the measure of what is strange and miraculous: if we sought a universal measure the strange and miraculous would not occur and all things would be equal.

Aphorisms (1765)

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

Aphorisms (1765)

If countries were named after the words you first hear when you go there, England would have to be called Damn It.

Aphorisms (1765)

The most successful tempters and thus the most dangerous are the deluded deluders.

Aphorisms (1765)

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

Aphorisms (1765)

Popular presentation today is all too often that which puts the mob in a position to talk about something without understanding it.

Aphorisms (1765)

Nowadays three witty turns of phrase and a lie make a writer.

Aphorisms (1765)

The most dangerous untruths are truths moderately distorted.

Aphorisms (1765)

Much reading has brought upon us a learned barbarism.

Aphorisms (1765)

Erudition can produce foliage without bearing fruit.

Aphorisms (1765)

It is in the gift for employing all the vicissitudes of life to one's own advantage and to that of one's craft that a large part of genius consists.

Aphorisms (1765)

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.

Aphorisms (1765)

Man can acquire accomplishments or he can become an animal, whichever he wants. God makes the animals, man makes himself.

Aphorisms (1765)

Man is always partial and is quite right to be. Even impartiality is partial.

Aphorisms (1765)

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.