"Don’t judge a man by his opinions, but what his opinions have made of him."
“Don’t judge a man by his opinions, but what his opinions have made of him.”
– Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
Goethe said of his contemporary Georg Christoph Lichtenberg: “He is not a household name. He is something rarer: a name savored by household names.” Very recently, I was introduced to Lichtenberg, an early experimental physicist who retains a following not for his physics, but for his aphorisms. Here is a sampling; a more complete list can be found here.
A book which, above all others in the world, should be forbidden, is a catalogue of forbidden books.
Perhaps in time the so-called Dark Ages will be thought of as including our own.
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!
The human tendency to regard little things as important has produced very many great things.
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.
Nothing is more conducive to peace of mind than not having any opinions at all.
One Comment
Jon Wiebe
He definitely had a way with words. I have noticed a pattern in famous quotes, and Lichtenberg seems very adept at this particular pattern: A fairly simple overall message that uses wordplay and irony in just the the right amount to get the message across. It makes it widely accessible, but still poignant enough to make most people think a little bit. Genius. I very much enjoyed all of these quotations.