The sure conviction that we could if we wanted to is the reason so many good minds are idle. – Georg C. Lichtenberg
Perhaps in time the so-called Dark Ages will be thought of as including our own. – Georg C. Lichtenberg
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
Every man has his moral backside which he refrains from showing unless he has to and keeps covered as long as possible with the trousers of decorum. – Georg C. Lichtenberg
There are very many people who read simply to prevent themselves from thinking. – Georg C. Lichtenberg
One must judge men not by their opinions, but by what their opinions have made of them. – Georg C. Lichtenberg
To do the opposite of something is also a form of imitation, namely an imitation of its opposite. – Georg C. Lichtenberg
If you are going to build something in the air it is always better to build castles than houses of cards. – Georg C. 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 C. Lichtenberg
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
What is the good of drawing conclusions from experience? I don’t deny we sometimes draw the right conclusions, but don’t we just as often draw the wrong ones? – Georg C. Lichtenberg
Prejudices are so to speak the mechanical instincts of men: through their prejudices they do without any effort many things they would find too difficult to think through to the point of resolving to do them. – Georg C. Lichtenberg
The most perfect ape cannot draw an ape; only man can do that; but, likewise, only man regards the ability to do this as a sign of superiority. – Georg C. Lichtenberg
Never undertake anything for which you wouldn’t have the courage to ask the blessings of heaven. – Georg C. Lichtenberg
Nothing can contribute more to peace of soul than the lack of any opinion whatever. – Georg C. Lichtenberg
We say that someone occupies an official position, whereas it is the official position that occupies him. – Georg C. Lichtenberg
That man is the noblest creature may also be inferred from the fact that no other creature has yet contested this claim. – Georg C. Lichtenberg
With most people disbelief in a thing is founded on a blind belief in some other thing. – Georg C. Lichtenberg
It is in the gift for employing all the vicissitudes of life to one’s own advantage and to that of one’s craft that a large part of genius consists. – Georg C. Lichtenberg
Just as the performance of the vilest and most wicked deeds requires spirit and talent, so even the greatest demand a certain insensitivity which under other circumstances we would call stupidity. – Georg C. Lichtenberg
We accumulate our opinions at an age when our understanding is at its weakest. – Georg C. Lichtenberg
I am convinced we do not only love ourselves in others but hate ourselves in others too. – Georg C. Lichtenberg
I cannot say whether things will get better if we change; what I can say is they must change if they are to get better. – Georg C. Lichtenberg
With prophecies the commentator is often a more important man than the prophet. – Georg C. Lichtenberg
With a pen in my hand I have successfully stormed bulwarks from which others armed with sword and excommunication have been repulsed. – Georg C. 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 C. Lichtenberg
