A person reveals his character by nothing so clearly as the joke he resents.
– Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
Everyone is a genius at least once a year. The real geniuses simply have their bright ideas closer together.
– Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
God created man in His own image, says the Bible; philosophers reverse the process: they create God in theirs.
– Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
He who is in love with himself has at least this advantage - he won't encounter many rivals.
– Georg Christoph 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 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
Man loves company - even if it is only that of a small burning candle.
– Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
Men still have to be governed by deception.
– Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
Never undertake anything for which you wouldn't have the courage to ask the blessings of heaven.
– Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
Perhaps in time the so-called Dark Ages will be thought of as including our own.
– 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
The most dangerous untruths are truths moderately distorted.
– Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
We cannot remember too often that when we observe nature, and especially the ordering of nature, it is always ourselves alone we are observing.
– Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
We have no words for speaking of wisdom to the stupid. He who understands the wise is wise already.
– Georg Christoph 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 Christoph Lichtenberg
Nothing contributes more to peace of soul than having no opinion at all.
– Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
When a book and a head collide and there is a hollow sound, is it always from the book?
– Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
Don't judge a man by his opinions, but what his opinions have made of him.
– Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
First there is a time when we believe everything, then for a little while we believe with discrimination, then we believe nothing whatever, and then we believe everything again - and, moreover, give reasons why we believe.
– Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
One's first step in wisdom is to question everything - and one's last is to come to terms with everything.
– Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
There are people who think that everything one does with a serious face is sensible.
– Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
To do just the opposite is also a form of imitation.
– Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
What a blessing it would be if we could open and shut our ears as easily as we open and shut our eyes!
– Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
With most men, unbelief in one thing springs from blind belief in another.