To make astute people believe one is what one is not is, in most cases, harder than actually to become what one wishes to appear. Georg C. Lichtenberg More Quotes by Georg C. Lichtenberg More Quotes From Georg C. Lichtenberg What we are able to judge with feeling is very little; the rest is all prejudice and complaisance. Georg C. Lichtenberg able judging feelings Propositions on which all men are in agreement are true: if they are not true we have no truth at all. Georg C. Lichtenberg propositions agreement men 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. Georg C. Lichtenberg conceited feelings people How few friends would remain friends if each could see the sentiments of the other in their entirety. Georg C. Lichtenberg few-friends sentiments ifs The fear of death which is imprinted in men is at the same time a great expedient Heaven employs to hinder them from many misdeeds: many things are left undone for fear of imperiling one's life or health. Georg C. Lichtenberg fear-of-death men heaven The greatest things in the world are brought about by other things which we count as nothing: little causes we overlook but which at length accumulate. Georg C. Lichtenberg causes littles world 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. Georg C. Lichtenberg body soul men The book which most deserved to be banned would be a catalog of banned books. Georg C. Lichtenberg banned-books would-be book How happily some people would live if they troubled themselves as little about other people's business as about their own. Georg C. Lichtenberg ifs littles people Brevity: To say at once whatever is to be said. Georg C. Lichtenberg brevity said Man is perhaps half mind and half matter in the same way as the polyp is half plant and half animal. The strangest creatures are always found on the border lines of species. Georg C. Lichtenberg mind animal men I made the journey to knowledge like dogs who go for walks with their masters, a hundred times forward and backward over the same territory; and when I arrived I was tired. Georg C. Lichtenberg tired journey dog If brandy was made out of sparrows there would soon be no sparrows. Georg C. Lichtenberg brandy sparrows made If it is permissible to write plays that are not intended to be seen, I should like to see who can prevent me from writing a book no one can read. Georg C. Lichtenberg play writing book Some people read only because they are too lazy to think. Georg C. Lichtenberg reading people thinking To see every day how people get the name 'genius' just as the wood-lice in the cellar the name 'millipede'-not because they have that many feet, but because most people don't want to count to 14-this has had the result that I don't believe anyone any more without checking. Georg C. Lichtenberg truth science believe Here take back the stuff that I am, nature, knead it back into the dough of being, make of me a bush, a cloud, whatever you will, even a man, only no longer make me. Georg C. Lichtenberg suicidal nature suicide Man is a masterpiece of creation if for no other reason than that, all the weight of evidence for determinism notwithstanding, he believes he has free will. Georg C. Lichtenberg weight men believe We now possess four principles of morality: 1) a philosophical: do good for its own sake, out of respect for the law; 2) a religious: do good because it is God's will, out of love of God; 3) a human: do good because it will promote your happiness, out of self-love; 4) a political: do good because it will promote the welfare of the society of which you are a part, out of love of society having regard to yourself. But is this not all one single principle, only viewed from different sides? Georg C. Lichtenberg philosophical religious character The worst thing you can possibly do is worrying and thinking about what you could have done. Georg C. Lichtenberg worry happiness thinking
