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.

A book is a mirror: if an ape looks into it an apostle is hardly likely to look out.

Virtue by premeditation isn't worth much.

Nothing can contribute more to peace of soul than the lack of any opinion whatever.

There is no greater impediment to progress in the sciences than the desire to see it take place too quickly.

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.

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

We have no words for speaking of wisdom to the stupid. He who understands the wise is wise already.

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?

Men still have to be governed by deception.

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.

A person reveals his character by nothing so clearly as the joke he resents.

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

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.

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

To do the opposite of something is also a form of imitation, namely an imitation of its opposite.

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

If all else fails, the character of a man can be recognized by nothing so surely as by a jest which he takes badly.

To receive applause for works which do not demand all our powers hinders our advance towards a perfecting of our spirit. It usually means that thereafter we stand still.

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.