“The motives that lead us to do anything might be arranged like the thirty-two winds and might be given names on the same pattern: for instance, "bread-bread-fame" or "fame-fame-bread."” TwoMightNamesGivenWindFamePatternsBreadInstanceThirtyMotiveGiven Names Author:Georg C. Lichtenberg
“People nowadays have such high hopes of America and the political conditions obtaining there that one might say the desires, at least the secret desires, of all enlightened Europeans are deflected to the west, like our magnetic needles.” PeopleMightAmericaPoliticalDesireSecretConditionsWestEnlightenedNeedlesMagneticObtainingSecret Desire Author:Georg C. Lichtenberg
“One might call habit a moral friction: something that prevents the mind from gliding over things but connects it with them and makes it hard for it to free itself from them.” MindHardMightMoralHabitFrictionGliding Author:Georg C. Lichtenberg
“The thoughts written on the walls of madhouses by their inmates might be worth publicizing.” MightWrittenWallInmatesMadhouses 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
“If an angel were to tell us about his philosophy, I believe many of his statements might well sound like '2 x 2= 13'.” IfsBelieveWellsPhilosophyMightI BelieveSoundAngelStatements Author:Georg C. Lichtenberg
“A writer who wishes to be read by posterity must not be averse to putting hints which might give rise to whole books, or ideas for learned discussions, in some corner of a chapter so that one should think he can afford to throw them away by the thousand.” ThinkingGivingShouldBookIdeasWholeMightWishThousandCornersDiscussionChaptersPosterityHintsMiscellaneous Author:Georg C. Lichtenberg
“We often have need of a profound philosophy to restore to our feelings their original state of innocence, to find our way out of the rubble of things alien to us, to begin to feel for ourselves and to speak ourselves, and I might almost say to exist ourselves.” WayNeedsFeelsStatesPhilosophyFeelingsMightScienceSpeakOriginalsProfoundPhilosopherAliensInnocenceRubble Author:Georg C. Lichtenberg
“People often become scholars for the same reason they become soldiers: simply because they are unfit for any other station. Their right hand has to earn them a livelihood; one might say they lie down like bears in winter and seek sustenance from their paws.” PeopleReasonHandsMightLyingBearsWinterSoldierStationsScholarLivelihoodSustenancePaws Author:Georg C. Lichtenberg
“How might letters be most efficiently copied so that the blind might read them with their fingers?” MightScienceLettersBlindFingersInvention Author:Georg C. Lichtenberg
