Georg C. Lichtenberg Quotes
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If this is philosophy it is at any rate a philosophy that is not in its right mind.
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There are two ways of extending life: firstly by moving the two points "born" and "died" farther away from one another. The other method is to go more slowly and leave the two points wherever God wills they should be, and this method is for the philosophers.
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If all mankind were suddenly to practice honesty, many thousands of people would be sure to starve.
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Knowledge acquired too rapidly and without being personally supplemented is never very productive.
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He who says he hates all kinds of flattery, and says so in earnest, has undoubtedly not as yet become acquainted with all kinds of it, whether in substance or in form.
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He was then in his fifty-fourth year, when even in the case of poets reason and passion begin to discuss a peace treaty and usually conclude it not very long afterwards.
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A good metaphor is something even the police should keep an eye on.
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Just as we outgrow a pair of trousers, we outgrow acquaintances, libraries, principles, etc., at times before they're worn out and times - and this is the worst of all - before we have new ones.
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Delicacy in woman is strength.
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If countries were named after the words you first hear when you go there, England would have to be called Damn It.
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The world is a body common to all men, changes to it bring about a change in the souls of all men who are turned towards that part of it at that moment.
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One of the greatest creations of the human mind is the art of reviewing books without having read them.
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No people are more conceited than those who depict their own feelings, especially if they happen to have a little prose at their command for the occasion.
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One should never trust a person who, while assuring you of something, puts his hands on his heart.
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Is it not strange that mankind should so willingly battle for religion and so unwillingly live according to its precepts?
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It is a sure evidence of a good book if it pleases us more and more as we grow older.
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A good method of discovery is to imagine certain members of a system removed and then see how what is left would behave: for example, where would we be if iron were absent from the world: this is an old example.
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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.
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Erudition can produce foliage without bearing fruit.
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As the few adepts in such things well know, universal morality is to be found in little everyday penny-events just as much as in great ones. There is so much goodness and ingenuity in a raindrop that an apothecary wouldn't let it go for less than half-a-crown.
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Astronomy is perhaps the science whose discoveries owe least to chance, in which human understanding appears in its whole magnitude, and through which man can best learn how small he is.
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People who never have any time on their hands are those who do the least.
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Many are less fortunate than you' may not be a roof to live under, but it will serve to retire beneath in the event of a shower.
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It is almost impossible to carry the torch of truth through a crowd without singeing somebody's beard.
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Delight at having understood a very abstract and obscure system leads most people to believe in the truth of what it demonstrates.
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Everyone is perfectly willing to learn from unpleasant experience - if only the damage of the first lesson could be repaired.
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The most dangerous untruths are truths slightly distorted.
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We cannot remember too often that when we observe nature, and especially the ordering of nature, it is always ourselves alone we are observing.
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The highest level than can be reached by a mediocre but experienced mind is a talent for uncovering the weaknesses of those greater than itself.
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There can hardly be a stranger commodity in the world than books. Printed by people who don't understand them; sold by people who don't understand them; bound, criticized and read by people who don't understand them; and now even written by people who don't understand them.
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