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

More quotes by Georg C. Lichtenberg

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A book which, above all others in the world, should be forbidden, is a catalogue of forbidden books.
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Nothing is more conducive to peace of mind than not having any opinion at all.
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I am confident of my ability to demonstrate that one can sometimes believe in something and yet not believe in it. Nothing is less fathomable than the systems that motivate our actions.
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Man is so perfectable and corruptible he can become a fool through good sense.
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Man is to be found in reason, God in the passions.
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I am always grieved when a man of real talent dies. The world needs such men more than Heaven does.
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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.
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We judge nothing so hastily as character, and yet there is nothing over which we should be more cautious.... I have always found that the so-called bad people improve on closer acquaintance, while the good fall off.
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The worst thing you can possibly do is worrying and thinking about what you could have done.
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If another Messiah was born he could hardly do so much good as the printing-press.
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The most successful tempters and thus the most dangerous are the deluded deluders.
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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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A handful of soldiers is always better than a mouthful of arguments.
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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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Many things about our bodies would not seem to us so filthy and obscene if we did not have the idea of nobility in our heads.
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It is almost impossible to carry the torch of truth through a crowd without singeing somebody's beard.
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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It often takes more courage to change one's opinion than to stick to it.
Georg C. Lichtenberg
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The feeling of health can only be gained by sickness.
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A good method of discovery is to imagine certain members of a system removed and then see how what is left would behave: for example, where would we be if iron were absent from the world: this is an old example.
Georg C. Lichtenberg