G. C. Lichtenberg

Some theories are good for nothing except to be argued about.

A man is never more serious than when he praises himself.

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.

Judge men not by their opinions, but by what their opinions have made of them.

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

If there were only turnips and potatoes in the world, someone would complain that plants grow the wrong way.

The writer who can't at times throw away a thought about which another would have written dissertations, unworried whether or not the reader will find it, will never become a great writer.

If moderation is a fault, then indifference is a crime.

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

People who never have any time on their hands are those who do the least.

There is something in our minds like sunshine and the weather, which is not under our control. When I write, the best things come to me from I know not where.

Honest, unaffected distrust of the powers of man is the surest sign of intelligence.

With the majority of people unbelief in one thing is founded on the blind belief in another.

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

Theologians always try to turn the Bible into a book without common sense.

Some men come by the name of genius in the same way as an insect comes by the name of centipede -- not because it has a hundred feet, but because most people can't count above fourteen.

Now that education is so easy, men are drilled for greatness, just as dogs are trained to retrieve. In this way we've discovered a new sort of genius, those great at being drilled. These are the people who are mainly spoiling the market.

Most subjects at universities are taught for no other purpose than that they may be re-taught when the students become teachers.

The Greeks possessed a knowledge of mankind which we apparently can hardly attain without going through the invigorating hibernation of a new barbarism.

Books are a mirror if an ass peers into them, you can't expect an apostle to look out.

It may not be natural for man to walk on two legs, but it was a noble invention.

I am always grieved when a man of real talent dies. The world needs such men more than Heaven does.

With a pen in my hand I have successfully stormed bulwarks from which others armed with sword and excommunication have been repulsed.

What I do not like about our definitions of genius is that there is in them nothing of the day of judgment, nothing of resounding through eternity and nothing of the footsteps of the Almighty.

We are obliged to regard many of our original minds as crazy at least until we have become as clever as they are.