Quote

Man…who lives in three places – in the past, in the present, and in the future – can be unhappy if one of these three is worthless. Religion has even added a fourth – eternity.

Georg C. Lichtenberg

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Georg C. Lichtenberg
Age: 56 †
Born: 1742
Born: July 1
Died: 1799
Died: February 24
Astronomer
French Moralist
Mathematician
Philosopher
Physicist
Scientist
University Teacher
Writer
København
Present
Future
Religion
Worthless
Lives
Added
Three
Fourth
Past
Unhappy
Even
Eternity
Men
Places

More quotes by Georg C. Lichtenberg

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There is something in the character of every man which cannot be broken in--the skeleton of his character and to try to alter this is like training a sheep for draught purposes.
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If it is permissible to write plays that are not intended to be seen, I should like to see who can prevent me from writing a book no one can read.
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Just as the performance of the vilest and most wicked deeds requires spirit and talent, so even the greatest demand a certain insensitivity which under other circumstances we would call stupidity.
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Nowadays three witty turns of phrase and a lie make a writer.
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What a blessing it would be if we could open and shut our ears...as easily as we open and shut our eyes.
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As I take up my pen I feel myself so full, so equal to my subject, and see my book so clearly before me in embryo, I would almost like to try to say it all in a single word.
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One's first step in wisdom is to question everything - and one's last is to come to terms with everything.
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We have no words for speaking of wisdom to the stupid. He who understands the wise is wise already.
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An hour-glass is a reminder not only of time's quick flight, but also of the dust to which we must at last return
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All mathematical laws which we find in Nature are always suspect to me, in spite of their beauty. They give me no pleasure. They are merely auxiliaries. At close range it is all not true.
Georg C. Lichtenberg
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The celebrated painter Gainsborough got as much pleasure from seeing violins as from hearing them.
Georg C. Lichtenberg
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The great rule: If the little bit you have is nothing special in itself, at least find a way of saying it that is a little bit special.
Georg C. Lichtenberg
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Man is so perfectable and corruptible he can become a fool through good sense.
Georg C. Lichtenberg
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It is a question whether, when we break a murderer on the wheel, we do not fall into the error a child makes when it hits the chair it has bumped into.
Georg C. Lichtenberg
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I am always grieved when a man of real talent dies. The world needs such men more than Heaven does.
Georg C. Lichtenberg
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A book is a mirror: if an ape looks into it an apostle is hardly likely to look out.
Georg C. Lichtenberg
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If you are going to build something in the air it is always better to build castles than houses of cards.
Georg C. Lichtenberg
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One use of dreams is that, unprejudiced by our often forced and artificial reflections, they represent the impartial outcome of our entire being.
Georg C. Lichtenberg
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What most clearly characterizes true freedom and its true employment is its misemployment.
Georg C. Lichtenberg
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The most successful tempters and thus the most dangerous are the deluded deluders.
Georg C. Lichtenberg