The search for truth is more precious than its possession. Gotthold Ephraim Lessing More Quotes by Gotthold Ephraim Lessing More Quotes From Gotthold Ephraim Lessing What can the Creator see with greater pleasure than a happy creature? Gotthold Ephraim Lessing creatorcheerfulnesspleasure Nothing under the sun is accidental, least of all that of which the intention is so clearly evident. Gotthold Ephraim Lessing evidentintentionsun When the heart dares to speak, it needs no preparation. Gotthold Ephraim Lessing preparationheartneeds As the stag which the huntsman has hit flies through bush and brake, over stock and stone, thereby exhausting his strength but not expelling the deadly bullet from his body; so does experience show that they who have troubled consciences run from place to place, but carry with them wherever they go their dangerous wounds. Gotthold Ephraim Lessing bulletsdoerunning The end-purpose of all art is enjoyment! Gotthold Ephraim Lessing purposeendsart It is not I who die, when I die, but my sin and misery. Gotthold Ephraim Lessing miserysindeath We moderns do not believe in demigods, but our smallest hero we expect to feel and act as a demigod. Gotthold Ephraim Lessing demigodsherobelieve Let the devil catch you but by a single hair, and you are his forever. Gotthold Ephraim Lessing devilforeverhair It is not the truth that a man possesses, or believes that he possesses, but the earnest effort which he puts forward to reach the truth, which constitutes the worth of a man Gotthold Ephraim Lessing effortmenbelieve The searcher's eye Not seldom finds more than he wished to find. Gotthold Ephraim Lessing searchersperceptioneye Would that we could at once paint with the eyes! In the long way from the eye through the arm to the pencil, how much is lost! Gotthold Ephraim Lessing eyelonghands Absolute truth belongs to Thee alone. Gotthold Ephraim Lessing absolute-truthtruth-isthee If the advice of a fool for once happens to be good, it requires a wise man to carry it out. Gotthold Ephraim Lessing wiseadvicemen Borrowing is not much better than begging. Gotthold Ephraim Lessing borrowingbegging-youlending It is not children only that one feeds with fairy tales. Gotthold Ephraim Lessing fairy-talefairychildren The lion is ashamed, it's true, when he hunts with the fox. Gotthold Ephraim Lessing lionsfoxesinspirational Why should not every individual man have existed more than once upon this world? Why should I not come back as often as I am capable of acquiring fresh knowledge? Is this hypothesis so laughable merely because it is the oldest? Because the human understanding, before the sophistries of the schools had dissipated and debilitated it, lighted upon it at once? Gotthold Ephraim Lessing understandingmenschool The real beggar is indeed the true and only king. Gotthold Ephraim Lessing beggarrealkings What education is to the individual man, revelation is to the human race. Education is revelation coming to the individual man, and revelation is education that has come, and is still coming to the human race. Gotthold Ephraim Lessing raceeducationmen For the will and not the gift makes the giver. Gotthold Ephraim Lessing giver
