Georg Christoph Lichtenberg quotes

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg was a German physicist, satirist, and writer, renowned for his witty aphorisms and contributions to experimental physics. His writings bridged science and philosophy, influencing later generations of thinkers and authors. He is remembered for his sharp intellect, humor, and insightful observations about life and human nature. Here are 174 of his quotes:

Nothing is more conducive to peace of mind than not having any opinion at all.

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

Nothing makes one old so quickly as the ever-present thought that one is growing older.

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

One must judge men not by their opinions, but by what their opinions have made of them.

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

Where the frontier of science once was is now the centre.

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

Is it not strange that mankind should so willingly battle for religion and so unwillingly live according to its precepts?

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

The human tendency to regard little things as important has produced very many great things.

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

Doubt must be no more than vigilance, otherwise it can become dangerous.

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

Much can be inferred about a man from his mistress: in her one beholds his weaknesses and his dreams.

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

If you are going to build something in the air it is always better to build castles than houses of cards.

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

The pleasures of the imagination are as it were only drawings and models which are played with by poor people who cannot afford the real thing.

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

The fly that doesn't want to be swatted is most secure when it lights on the fly-swatter.

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

To be content with life or to live merrily, rather all that is required is that we bestow on all things only a fleeting, superficial glance; the more thoughtful we become the more earnest we grow.

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

Be wary of passing the judgment: obscure. To find something obscure poses no difficult, elephants and poodles find many things obscure.

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

Once we know our weaknesses they cease to do us any harm.

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

We accumulate our opinions at an age when our understanding is at its weakest.

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

Many things about our bodies would not seem to us so filthy and obscene if we did not have the idea of nobility in our heads.

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

There are very many people who read simply to prevent themselves from thinking.

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

There exists a species of transcendental ventriloquism by means of which men can be made to believe that something said on earth comes from Heaven.

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

It is a question whether, when we break a murderer on the wheel, we do not fall into the error a child makes when it hits the chair it has bumped into.

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

I am convinced we do not only love ourselves in others but hate ourselves in others too.

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

Just as we outgrow a pair of trousers, we outgrow acquaintances, libraries, principles, etc., at times before they're worn out and times - and this is the worst of all - before we have new ones.

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

What is called an acute knowledge of human nature is mostly nothing but the observer's own weaknesses reflected back from others.

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg