“Human pride is a strange thing; it cannot easily be suppressed, and if you stop up hole A will peep forth again in a twinkling from another hole B, and if this is closed it is ready to come out at hole C, and so on.” IfsHumansStrangeReadyPrideHolesStrange ThingsTwinkling Author:Georg C. Lichtenberg
“The rules of grammar are mere human statutes, which is why when he speaks out of the possessed the Devil himself speaks bad Latin.” HumansSpeakDevilMereLatinPossessedGrammarSpeaks OutStatutes Author:Georg C. Lichtenberg
“One of the greatest creations of the human mind is the art of reviewing books without having read them.” MindHumansArtBookCreationHuman Mind Author:Georg C. Lichtenberg
“If nature be regarded as the teacher and we poor human beings as her pupils, the human race presents a very curious picture. We all sit together at a lecture and possess the necessary principles for understanding it, yet we always pay more attention to the chatter of our fellow students than to the lecturer's discourse. Or, if our neighbor copies something down, we sneak it from him, stealing what he himself may have heard imperfectly, and add it to our own errors of spelling and opinion.” IfsHumansMayTogetherUnderstandingHuman BeingsPoorPayRaceAttentionOpinionPrinciplesTeacherHeardStudentsFellowsAddErrorsNeighborStealingCuriousHuman RaceCopiesDiscourseLecturesPupilsSneakSpellingLecturerChatter Author:Georg C. Lichtenberg
“The most entertaining surface on earth is the human face.” HumansEarthFacesSurfaceEntertainingHuman Faces Author:Georg C. Lichtenberg
“What is called an acute knowledge of human nature is mostly nothing but the observer's own weaknesses reflected back from others.” HumansNatureHuman NatureWeaknessObservers Author:Georg C. Lichtenberg
“The Greeks possessed a knowledge of human nature we seem hardly able to attain to without passing through the strengthening hibernation of a new barbarism.” HumansSeemsAbleHuman NaturePassingPassingsGreekPossessedBarbarismStrengtheningPassing ThroughHibernation Author:Georg C. Lichtenberg
“Honest unaffected distrust of human abilities under all circumstances is the surest sign of strength of mind.” MindHumansAbilityHonestCircumstancesDistrustStrength Of Mind Author:Georg C. Lichtenberg
“We now possess four principles of morality: 1) a philosophical: do good for its own sake, out of respect for the law; 2) a religious: do good because it is God's will, out of love of God; 3) a human: do good because it will promote your happiness, out of self-love; 4) a political: do good because it will promote the welfare of the society of which you are a part, out of love of society having regard to yourself. But is this not all one single principle, only viewed from different sides?” HumansDifferentSelfCharacterLawPoliticalSidesReligiousPrinciplesFourSelf LoveMoralityPhilosophicalRegardSakeGods WillGod LoveWelfareDifferent Sides Author:Georg C. Lichtenberg
“We can see nothing whatever of the soul unless it is visible in the expression of the countenance; one might call the faces at a large assembly of people a history of the human soul written in a kind of Chinese ideograms.” PeopleHumansKindSoulMightFacesWrittenExpressionChineseVisibleHuman SoulAssemblyCountenanceHuman Faces Author: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.” HumansAnimalMistakeErr Is Human Author:Georg C. Lichtenberg
“The human tendency to regard little things as important has produced very many great things.” HumansLittlesImportantSpiritReligionSpiritualityRegardGreat ThingsTendenciesLittle ThingsGardening Author:Georg C. Lichtenberg
“Astronomy is perhaps the science whose discoveries owe least to chance, in which human understanding appears in its whole magnitude, and through which man can best learn how small he is.” MenHumansWholeUnderstandingChanceDiscoveryAstronomyMagnitude Author:Georg C. Lichtenberg
“The greater part of human misery is caused by indolence.” HumansGreaterMiseryIndolence Author:Georg C. Lichtenberg
“It is almost everywhere the case that soon after it is begotten the greater part of human wisdom is laid to rest in repositories.” HumansCasesGreaterLibraryHuman Wisdom Author:Georg C. Lichtenberg
