Quote

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.

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
Something
Sheep
Men
Training
Like
Broken
Purpose
Draught
Cannot
Skeleton
Character
Skeletons
Trying
Alter
Every
Purposes

More quotes by Georg C. Lichtenberg

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To make a vow is a greater sin than to break one.
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It is almost impossible to carry the torch of truth through a crowd without singeing somebody's beard.
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Every condition of the soul has its own sign and expression...So you will see how hard it is to seem original without being so.
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Here take back the stuff that I am, nature, knead it back into the dough of being, make of me a bush, a cloud, whatever you will, even a man, only no longer make me.
Georg C. Lichtenberg
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Man is to be found in reason, God in the passions.
Georg C. Lichtenberg
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The most dangerous untruths are truths slightly distorted.
Georg C. Lichtenberg
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Libraries can in general be too narrow or too wide for the soul.
Georg C. Lichtenberg
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Nothing makes one old so quickly as the ever-present thought that one is growing older.
Georg C. Lichtenberg
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One of the greatest creations of the human mind is the art of reviewing books without having read 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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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?
Georg C. Lichtenberg
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To see every day how people get the name 'genius' just as the wood-lice in the cellar the name 'millipede'-not because they have that many feet, but because most people don't want to count to 14-this has had the result that I don't believe anyone any more without checking.
Georg C. Lichtenberg
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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.
Georg C. Lichtenberg
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The fruits of philosophy are the important thing, not the philosophy itself. When we ask the time, we don't want to know how watches are made.
Georg C. Lichtenberg
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It is too bad if you have to do everything upon reflection and can't do anything from early habit.
Georg C. Lichtenberg
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If all mankind were suddenly to practice honesty, many thousands of people would be sure to starve.
Georg C. Lichtenberg
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There were honest people long before there were Christians and there are, God be praised, still honest people where there are no Christians. It could therefore easily be possible that people are Christians because true Christianity corresponds to what they would have been even if Christianity did not exist.
Georg C. Lichtenberg
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Those who have racked their brains to discover new proofs have perhaps been induced to do so by a compulsion they could not quite explain to themselves. Instead of giving us their new proofs they should have explained to us the motivation that constrained them to search for them.
Georg C. Lichtenberg
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Every man has his moral backside which he refrains from showing unless he has to and keeps covered as long as possible with the trousers of decorum.
Georg C. Lichtenberg
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Nowadays three witty turns of phrase and a lie make a writer.
Georg C. Lichtenberg