Quotes from Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

Don't judge a man by his opinions, but what his opinions have made of him.

The thoughts written on the walls of madhouses by their inmates might be worth publicizing.

Nothing is more conductive to peace of mind than not having any opinions at all.

The most dangerous of all falsehoods is a slightly distorted truth.

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

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

The highest level than can be reached by a mediocre but experienced mind is a talent for uncovering the weaknesses of those greater than itself.

To do just the opposite is also a form of imitation.

Man…who lives in three places – in the past, in the present, and in the future – can be unhappy if one of these three is worthless. Religion has even added a fourth – eternity.

When a book and a head collide and a hollow sound is heard, must it always have come from the book?

Whenever he composes a critical review, I have been told, he gets an enormous erection.

I forget most of what I read, just as I do most of what I have eaten, but I know that both contribute no less to the conservation of my mind and my body on that account.

Everyone is a genius at least once a year. The real geniuses simply have their bright ideas closer together.

There is no mistaking a good book when one meets it. It is like falling in love.

Honest unaffected distrust of human abilities under all circumstances is the surest sign of strength of mind.

The man was such an intellectual he was of almost no use.

You believe I run after the strange because I do not know the beautiful; no, it is because you do not know the beautiful that I seek the strange.

One's first step in wisdom is to question everything - and one's last is to come to terms with everything.

It is almost impossible to carry the torch of truth through a crowd without singeing somebody's beard.

A book is a mirror; if an ass peers into it, you can't expect an apostle to peer out.

Diogenes, filthily attired, paced across the splendid carpets in Plato's dwelling. Thus, said he, do I trample on the pride of Plato. Yes, Plato replied, but only with another kind of pride.

Perhaps in time the so-called Dark Ages will be thought of as including our own.

You can make a good living from soothsaying but not from truthsaying

With most men, unbelief in one thing springs from blind belief in another.