Georg Christoph Lichtenberg Quotes

What is called an acute knowledge of human nature is mostly nothing but the observer's own weaknesses reflected back from others.

Ich kann freilich nicht sagen, ob es besser werden wird wenn es anders wird; aber so viel kann ich sagen, es muß anders werden, wenn es gut werden soll.

Before one blames, one should always find out whether one cannot excuse. To discover little faults has been always the particularity of such brains that are a little or not at all above the average. The superior ones keep quiet or say something against the whole and the great minds transform without blaming.

Good taste is either that which agrees with my taste or that which subjects itself to the rule of reason. From this we can see how useful it is to employ reason in seeking out the laws of taste.

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

The fly that doesn't want to be swatted is most secure when it lights on the fly-swatter.

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.

I believe that some of the greatest minds that ever lived had not read half as much and did not know nearly as much as some of our mediocre scholars. And some of our very mediocre scholars could have become greater men if they had not read so much.

The great rule: If the little bit you have is nothing special in itself, at least find a way of saying it that is a little bit special.

For the loss of those we have loved there is no alleviation but time and carefully and rationally chosen diversions such as will not cause our heart to reproach us.

Wenn ich im Traum mit jemanden disputiere und der mich widerlegt und belehrt, so bin ich es, des sich selbst belehrt, also nachdenkt. Dieses Nachdenken wird also unter der Form von Gespräch angeschaut.(...) Da wir eigentlich nicht gnau wissen, wo wir denken, so können wir den Gedanken hinversetzen, wo wir wollen. So wie man sprechen kann, daß man glaubt, es komme von einem Dritten, so kann man auch so denken, daß es läßt, als würde es uns gesagt: Genius Sokratispp. Wie erstaunend vieles ließe sich nicht durch die Träume noch entwickeln.

One is rarely an impulsive innovator after the age of sixty, but one can still be a very fine orderly and inventive thinker. One rarely procreates children at that age, but one is all the more skilled at educating those who have already been procreated, and education is procreation of another kind.

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?

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

Of all the inventions of man I doubt whether any was more easily accomplished than that of a Heaven.