If all else fails, the character of a man can be recognized by nothing so surely as by a jest which he takes badly. Georg C. Lichtenberg More Quotes by Georg C. Lichtenberg More Quotes From Georg C. Lichtenberg What is called an acute knowledge of human nature is mostly nothing but the observer's own weaknesses reflected back from others. Georg C. Lichtenberg weaknessnaturehumans We cannot remember too often that when we observe nature, and especially the ordering of nature, it is always ourselves alone we are observing. Georg C. Lichtenberg awevisionremember Everyone is a genius at least once a year. The real geniuses simply have their bright ideas closer together. Georg C. Lichtenberg realwisdomyears The fly that doesn't want to be swatted is most secure when it lights on the fly-swatter. Georg C. Lichtenberg philosophicalinspirationalphilosophy Everyone should study at least enough philosophy and belles-lettres to make his sexual experience more delectable. Georg C. Lichtenberg studyenoughphilosophy A donkey appears to me like a horse translated into Dutch. Georg C. Lichtenberg dutchhorsedonkey With prophecies the commentator is often a more important man than the prophet. Georg C. Lichtenberg prophetimportantmen Libraries can in general be too narrow or too wide for the soul. Georg C. Lichtenberg librarywidesoul First there is a time when we believe everything, then for a little while we believe with discrimination, then we believe nothing whatever, and then we believe everything again - and, moreover, give reasons why we believe. Georg C. Lichtenberg littlesgivingbelieve There are people who think that everything one does with a serious face is sensible. Georg C. Lichtenberg doepeoplethinking He marvelled at the fact that the cats had two holes cut in their fur at precisely the spot where their eyes were. Georg C. Lichtenberg catcuttingeye What you have been obliged to discover by yourself leaves a path in your mind which you can use again when the need arises. Georg C. Lichtenberg mindmathneeds Imagine the world so greatly magnified that particles of light look like twenty-four-pound cannon balls. Georg C. Lichtenberg twentieslightscience It is almost everywhere the case that soon after it is begotten the greater part of human wisdom is laid to rest in repositories. Georg C. Lichtenberg librarycaseshumans Above all things expand the frontiers of science: without this the rest counts for nothing. Georg C. Lichtenberg accountsall-thingsscience 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. Georg C. Lichtenberg let-it-goeverydaypennies Erudition can produce foliage without bearing fruit. Georg C. Lichtenberg foliagefruitproduce Pain warns us not to exert our limbs to the point of breaking them. How much knowledge would we not need to recognize this by the exercise of mere reason. Georg C. Lichtenberg painexerciseneeds People who have read a good deal rarely make great discoveries. I do not say this in excuse of laziness, but because invention presupposes an extensive independent contemplation of things. Georg C. Lichtenberg independentdiscoverypeople With God thoughts are colors, with us they are pigments-even the most abstract one may be accompanied by physical pain. Georg C. Lichtenberg paincolormay
