Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

Germany
1 Jul 1742 // 24 Feb 1799
Scientist / Writer

Quotes

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The most dangerous untruths are truths slightly distorted
Prejudices are so to speak the mechanical instincts of men: through their prejudices they do without any effort many things they would find too difficult to think through to the point of resolving to do them
One might call habit a moral friction: something that prevents the mind from gliding over things but connects it with them and makes it hard for it to free itself from them
Once we know our weaknesses they cease to do us any harm
Nothing makes one old so quickly as the ever-present thought that one is growing older
Nothing can contribute more to peace of soul than the lack of any opinion whatever
Men still have to be governed by deception
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
Man loves company, even if it is only that of a smouldering candle
Man is to be found in reason, God in the passions
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On Anger: "For every minute you remain angry, you give up sixty seconds of peace of mind."
Essays
On Destiny: "Our destiny exercises its influence over us even when, as yet, we have not learned its nature: it is our future that lays down the law of our today."
Human, All Too Human
On Friendship: "A crowd is not company; and faces are but a gallery of pictures; and talk but a tinkling cymbal, where there is no love."
Essays