Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

There are people who think that everything one does with a serious face is sensible.

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

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

The proof that man is the noblest of all creatures is that no other creature has ever denied it.

What a blessing it would be if we could open and shut our ears as easily as we open and shut our eyes.

When a book and a head collide and there is a hollow sound, is it always from the book?

What a blessing it would be if we could open and shut our ears as easily as we open and shut our eyes!

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

The worst thing you can possibly do is worrying and thinking about what you could have done.

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

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

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

First there is a time when we believe everything, then for a little while we believe with discrimination, then we believe nothing whatever, and then we believe everything again - and, moreover, give reasons why we believe.

Man is a gregarious animal and much more so in his mind than in his body. A golden rule; judge men not by their opinions but by what their opinions have made of them.

I cannot say whether things will get better if we change; what I can say is they must change if they are to get better.

With most people unbelief in one thing is founded upon blind belief in another.

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

A person reveals his character by nothing so clearly as the joke he resents.

- Georg Christoph Lichtenberg