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There are people who possess not so much genius as a certain talent for perceiving the desires of the century, or even of the decade, before it has done so itself.

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
Talent
Century
Perceiving
Desire
Decade
Certain
Possess
Done
Desires
Even
Decades
Much
Greatness
People
Genius

More quotes by Georg C. Lichtenberg

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To grow wiser means to learn to know better and better the faults to which this instrument with which we feel and judge can be subject.
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Astronomy is perhaps the science whose discoveries owe least to chance, in which human understanding appears in its whole magnitude, and through which man can best learn how small he is.
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To make a vow is a greater sin than to break one.
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The great trick of regarding small departures from the truth as the truth itself - on which is founded the entire integral calculus - is also the basis of our witty speculations, where the whole thing would often collapse if we considered the departures with philosophical rigour.
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The girl who reveals herself heart and soul to her friend reveals the secrets of the entire sex for every girl is the guardian of the feminine mysteries.
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The most dangerous untruths are truths slightly distorted.
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What is the good of drawing conclusions from experience? I don't deny we sometimes draw the right conclusions, but don't we just as often draw the wrong ones?
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Never trust a man who lays his hand on his heart when he assures you of anything.
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He who says he hates all kinds of flattery, and says so in earnest, has undoubtedly not as yet become acquainted with all kinds of it, whether in substance or in form.
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Libraries can in general be too narrow or too wide for the soul.
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We say that someone occupies an official position, whereas it is the official position that occupies him.
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If it were true what in the end would be gained? Nothing but another truth. Is this such a mighty advantage? We have enough old truths still to digest, and even these we would be quite unable to endure if we did not sometimes flavor them with lies.
Georg C. Lichtenberg
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Nothing reveals a man's character better than the kind of joke at which he takes offense.
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The most successful tempters and thus the most dangerous are the deluded deluders.
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Delicacy in woman is strength.
Georg C. Lichtenberg
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To make astute people believe one is what one is not is, in most cases, harder than actually to become what one wishes to appear.
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What most clearly characterizes true freedom and its true employment is its misemployment.
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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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The rules of grammar are mere human statutes, which is why when he speaks out of the possessed the Devil himself speaks bad Latin.
Georg C. Lichtenberg
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Diogenes, filthily attired, paced across the splendid carpets in Plato's dwelling. Thus, said he, do I trample on the pride of Plato. Yes, Plato replied, but only with another kind of pride.
Georg C. Lichtenberg