Georg C. Lichtenberg
49 quotations
If another Messiah was born he could hardly do so much good as the printing-press.
He was always smoothing and polishing himself, and in the end he became blunt before he was sharp.
There are people who believe everything is sane and sensible that is done with a solemn face.
First we have to believe, and then we believe.
With most people disbelief in a thing is founded on a blind belief in some other thing.
With the majority of people unbelief in one thing is founded on the blind belief in another.
There are very many people who read simply to prevent themselves from thinking.
A book is a mirror: If an ass peers into it, you can't expect an apostle to look out.
A person reveals his character by nothing so clearly as the joke he resents.
A schoolteacher or professor cannot educate individuals, he educates only species.
The most successful tempters and thus the most dangerous are the deluded deluders.
Theologians always try to turn the Bible into a book without common sense.
Some theories are good for nothing except to be argued about.
The human tendency to regard little things as important has produced very many great things.
People who never have any time on their hands are those who do the least.
Virtue by premeditation isn't worth much.
We have no words for speaking of wisdom to the stupid. He who understands the wise is wise already.
He swallowed a lot of wisdom, but all of it seems to have gone down the wrong way.
The worst thing you can possibly do is worrying and thinking about what you could have done.
Nowadays three witty turns of phrase and a lie make a writer.
The sure conviction that we could if we wanted to is the reason so many good minds are idle.
He who is in love with himself has at least this advantage -- he won't encounter many rivals.
Man loves company, even if it is only that of a smoldering candle.
The fly that does not want to be swatted is safest if it sits on the fly-swat.