It is certainly not a matter of indifference whether I learn something without effort or finally arrive at it myself through my system of thought. In the latter case everything has roots, in the former it is merely superficial. — Georg C. Lichtenberg Copy Share Image
The lower classes of men, though they do not think it worthwhile to record what they perceive, nevertheless perceive everything that is worth noting; the difference between them and a man of learning often consists in nothing more than the… — Georg C. Lichtenberg Copy Share Image
If people should ever start to do only what is necessary millions would die of hunger. — Georg C. Lichtenberg Copy Share Image
We can see nothing whatever of the soul unless it is visible in the expression of the countenance; one might call the faces at… — Georg C. Lichtenberg Copy Share Image
The wisdom of providence is as much revealed in the rarity of genius, as in the circumstance that not everyone is deaf or blind. — Georg C. Lichtenberg Copy Share Image
I ceased in the year 1764 to believe that one can convince one’s opponents with arguments printed in books. It is not to do… — Georg C. Lichtenberg Copy Share Image
It is a great shame; most of our words are misused tools / which often still smell of the mud in which previous owners… — Georg C. Lichtenberg Copy Share Image
To live when you do not want to is dreadful, but it would be even more terrible to be immortal when you did not… — Georg C. Lichtenberg Copy Share Image
The fruits of philosophy are the important thing, not the philosophy itself. When we ask the time, we don't want to know how watches… — Georg C. Lichtenberg Copy Share Image
He who says he hates all kinds of flattery, and says so in earnest, has undoubtedly not as yet become acquainted with all kinds… — Georg C. Lichtenberg Copy Share Image
One can live in this world on soothsaying but not on truth saying. — Georg C. Lichtenberg Copy Share Image
Actual aristocracy cannot be abolished by any law: all the law can do is decree how it is to be imparted and who is… — Georg C. Lichtenberg Copy Share Image
