Georg Christoph Lichtenberg Quotes

Kenntnis der Mittel ohne eine eigentliche Anwendung, ja ohne Gabe und Willen, sie anzuwenden, ist, was man jetzt gemeiniglich Gelehrsamkeit nennt.

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.

Nothing puts a greater obstacle in the way of the progress of knowledge than thinking that one knows what one does not yet know.

Când ai de facut o lucrare, nu te gândi mereu la întregimea ei; executa fragmentul pe care-l ai în fata, si când ai terminat cu el, mergi mai departe

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

"Думата "трудност" не трябва да съществува за творческия ум. Долу тази дума!"

I believe that man is in the last resort so free a being that his right to be what he believes himself to be cannot be contested.

Translation: With most men, unbelief in one thing springs from blind belief in another.

Bei den meisten Menschen gründet sich der unglaube in einer Sache auf blinden Glauben in einer anderen.

He was always smoothing and polishing himself, and in the end he became blunt before he was sharp.

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.

What most clearly characterizes true freedom and its true employment is its misemployment.

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.

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

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.