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We can see nothing whatever of the soul unless it is visible in the expression of the countenance; one might call the faces at a large assembly of people a history of the human soul written in a kind of Chinese ideograms.

— Georg Christoph Lichtenberg Aphorisms (1765)

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More quotes by Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

It is almost impossible to bear the torch of truth through a crowd without singeing somebody’s beard.

Aphorisms (1765)

If you are going to build something in the air it is always better to build castles than houses of cards.

Aphorisms (1765)

The human tendency to regard little things as important has produced very many great things.

Aphorisms (1765)

Nothing can contribute more to peace of soul than the lack of any opinion whatever.

Aphorisms (1765)

Even truth needs to be clad in new garments if it is to appeal to a new age.

Aphorisms (1765)

All Georg Christoph Lichtenberg quotes →

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A generation which ignores history has no past —and no future.

Robert A. Heinlein Time Enough for Love (1973)

History, Stephen said, is a nightmare from which I am trying to awake.

James Joyce Ulysses (1922)

If we don’t care about our past we can’t have very much hope for our future.

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

I like the dreams of the future better than the history of the past, — so good night!

Thomas Jefferson

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.