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 He swallowed a lot of wisdom, but all of it seems to have gone down the wrong way. Georg C. Lichtenberg wisdomsillyway We are obliged to regard many of our original minds as crazy at least until we have become as clever as they are. Georg C. Lichtenberg crazycleverwork All mathematical laws which we find in Nature are always suspect to me, in spite of their beauty. They give me no pleasure. They are merely auxiliaries. At close range it is all not true. Georg C. Lichtenberg naturemathbeauty In mathematical analysis we call x the undetermined part of line a: the rest we don't call y, as we do in common life, but a-x. Hence mathematical language has great advantages over the common language. Georg C. Lichtenberg linesmathlife Man is a masterpiece of creation . . . Georg C. Lichtenberg masterpiececreationmen In each of us there is a little of all of us. Georg C. Lichtenberg littles Man is a masterpiece of creation, if only because no amount of determinism can prevent him from believing that he acts as a free being. Georg C. Lichtenberg creationmenbelieve If we thought more for ourselves we would have very many more bad books and very many more good ones. Georg C. Lichtenberg ifsbook A schoolteacher or professor cannot educate individuals, he educates only species. Georg C. Lichtenberg teachingteacherretirement He was always smoothing and polishing himself, and in the end he became blunt before he was sharp. Georg C. Lichtenberg I have often noticed that when people come to understand a mathematical proposition in some other way than that of the ordinary demonstration, they promptly say, "Oh, I see. That's how it must be." This is a sign that they explain it to themselves from within their own system. Georg C. Lichtenberg understandingmathpeople To err is human also in so far as animals seldom or never err, or at least only the cleverest of them do so. Georg C. Lichtenberg humansmistakeanimal Virtue by premeditation isn't worth much. Georg C. Lichtenberg premeditationvirtue It often takes more courage to change one's opinion than to stick to it. Georg C. Lichtenberg stickschangefear
