Quotes by Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (1742–1799) — Physiker und Schriftsteller · keine · Deutschland

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (1742–1799) war ein deutscher Physiker, Astronom und Schriftsteller der Aufklärung, der als Professor für Experimentalphysik in Göttingen wirkte. Er gilt als Begründer des deutschsprachigen Aphorismus und wurde insbesondere durch seine in den „Sudelbüchern“ festgehaltenen scharfgeistigen Beobachtungen sowie seine Kritik an Aberglauben und religiösem Dogmatismus bekannt. Für Bibelleser regt sein methodischer Skeptizismus dazu an, überlieferte Denkmuster kritisch zu hinterfragen und den eigenen Glauben frei von Dogmatismus und blinder Gelehrsamkeit zu prüfen.

Era: Revival & the 19th Century

Recurring topics: Wisdom & Understanding, Freedom & Truth, Doubt & Hard Questions, The Bible & the Word of God, Church & Congregation, Relationships & Family, Time & Transience, God, Jesus & the Holy Spirit

Quotes by Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

A good memory is a good gift of God. Being able to forget is often an even better gift of God.

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

Whoever looks for an angel and only looks at the wings might bring a goose home.

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

A book is a mirror: if an ape looks into it, no apostle can look out.

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

One can live well from fortune-telling, but not from telling the truth.

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

Use ordinary words to say extraordinary things.

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

Isn't it strange that people are so eager to fight for their religion and so reluctant to live by its precepts?

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

When one feels compassion, one doesn't first ask other people whether one should feel it.

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

One finds instruction more often in the world than comfort.

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

God created man in his own image, says the Bible; philosophers do just the opposite - they create God in theirs.

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

It is almost impossible to carry the torch of truth through a crowd without singeing someone's beard.

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

What good is every sunrise, if we do not get up.

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

Do you really believe that dear God is Catholic?

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

One should never have so much to do that there is no time left to think.

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

One can do good in as many ways as one can sin, namely in thought, word, and deed.

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

Never undertake anything for which you don't have the heart to ask heaven's blessing.

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

When a praying sister marries a praying brother, that does not always make a praying couple.

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

That sermons are preached in churches does not make lightning rods on them unnecessary.

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

Among the greatest discoveries the human mind has made in recent times is, I think, the art of judging books without having read them.

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

Belief in a God is instinct; it is as natural to man as walking on two legs.

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

In many cases habit is a bad thing; it makes us take wrong for right and error for truth.

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

Nothing contributes more to peace of mind than having no opinion at all.

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

The wisdom of a person can be measured by the care with which he considers the future and the end.

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

Truthfulness is the greatest cunning.

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

Our theologians insist on turning the Bible by force into a book in which there is no human reason.

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

Hourglasses remind us not only of the swift flight of time, but also, at the same time, of the dust into which we shall one day fall.

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

Wanting to deduce certain things from God's wisdom is not much better than doing so from one's own understanding.

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

The common man mistakes the means for the end in his churchgoing and Bible reading.

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

Love: a trade in which both parties gain.

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

The Bible is a book written by human beings, like all books. By people who were something other than us, because they lived in somewhat different times, simpler in some respects than we are, but for that also far more ignorant. So a book in which there is both truth and falsehood, both good and bad.

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

Sources: wikipedia.org, deutschlandfunkkultur.de, ebsco.com, wordpress.com

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