344 Quotes by Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

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.

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.

Virtue by premeditation isn’t worth much.

Many a man who is willing to be shot for his belief in a miracle would have doubted, had he been present at the miracle itself.

Man is to be found in reason, God in the passions.

It is too bad if you have to do everything upon reflection and can’t do anything from early habit.

A good part of the fame of most celebrated men is due to the shortsightedness of their admirers.

Superstition originates among ordinary people in the early and all too zealous instruction they receive in religion: they hear of mysteries, miracles, deeds of the Devil, and consider it very probable that things of this sort could occur in everything anywhere.

Nowadays three witty turns of phrase and a lie make a writer.