A book is a mirror: if an ape looks into it an apostle is hardly likely to look out.

— Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

A person reveals his character by nothing so clearly as the joke he resents.

— Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

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 Christoph Lichtenberg

Don't judge a man by his opinions, but what his opinions have made of him.

— Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

Everyone is a genius at least once a year. The real geniuses simply have their bright ideas closer together.

— Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

God creates the animals man creates himself.

— Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

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.

— Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

If countries were named after the words you first hear when you go there, England would have to be called "Damn It".

— Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

...if we gained only one incontestable truth every ten years from each of our philosophical writers the harvest we reaped would be sufficient.

— Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

If we thought more for ourselves we would have very many more bad books and very many more good ones.

— Georg Christoph Lichtenberg