Georg Christoph Lichtenberg's best aphorisms
The top 3 according to 0 votes from people: I cannot say whether things will get better if they change; but I can say they must change if they are to get better. · 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 ape looks in, no apostle can look out.. (Updated Apr 22, 2024.)
The wittiest and wisest lines from Lichtenberg's «Waste Books» (1765–1799), each with notebook and number.
Automatically translated (original in Deutsch). See the original
Top 12
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1
I cannot say whether things will get better if they change; but I can say they must change if they are to get better.
Waste Books, notebook K (293).
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2
It is almost impossible to carry the torch of truth through a crowd without singeing somebody's beard.
Waste Books, notebook G (13).
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3
A book is a mirror: if an ape looks in, no apostle can look out.
Waste Books, notebook E (215).
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4
The American who first discovered Columbus made a nasty discovery.
Waste Books, notebook G (183).
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5
That man is the noblest creature may be inferred from the fact that no other creature has contradicted him.
Waste Books, notebook D (331).
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6
The book that most deserves to be banned would be a catalogue of banned books.
Waste Books, notebook G (150).
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7
The fact that sermons are preached in churches doesn't make lightning rods on them unnecessary.
Waste Books, notebook L (67). Lichtenberg was a physicist and a champion of lightning rods.
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8
People who never have time do the least.
Waste Books, notebook K (125).
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9
The man had so much intelligence that he was almost useless for anything in the world.
Waste Books, notebook D (451).
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10
A sure sign of a good book is that you like it more the older you get.
Waste Books, notebook E (196).
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11
He always read «Agamemnon» instead of «angenommen» (supposed), so much had he read Homer.
Waste Books, notebook G (187).
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12
A marriage without the spice of small quarrels would be almost like a poem without an R.
Waste Books, notebook L (473).
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