Georg C. Lichtenberg Mind Quotations

The sure conviction that we could if we wanted to is the reason so many good minds are idle.

One might call habit a moral friction: something that prevents the mind from gliding over things but connects it with them and makes it hard for it to free itself from them.

If this is philosophy it is at any rate a philosophy that is not in its right mind.

I forget the greater part of what I read, but all the same it nourishes my mind.

It is a dangerous thing for the perfecting of our minds to gain applause by works that do not call forth the whole of our energies; for in that case one generally comes to a standstill.

I forget most of what I read, just as I do most of what I have eaten, but I know that both contribute no less to the conservation of my mind and my body on that account.

Honest unaffected distrust of human abilities under all circumstances is the surest sign of strength of mind.

The highest level than can be reached by a mediocre but experienced mind is a talent for uncovering the weaknesses of those greater than itself.

Before one blames, one should always find out whether one cannot excuse. To discover little faults has been always the particularity of such brains that are a little or not at all above the average. The superior ones keep quiet or say something against the whole and the great minds transform without blaming.

The highest point to which a weak but experienced mind can rise is detecting the weakness of better men.

Man is perhaps half mind and half matter in the same way as the polyp is half plant and half animal. The strangest creatures are always found on the border lines of species.

One of the greatest creations of the human mind is the art of reviewing books without having read them.

What we have to discover for ourselves leaves behind in our mind a pathway that can be used on another occasion.

What you have been obliged to discover by yourself leaves a path in your mind which you can use again when the need arises.

It is said that truth comes from the mouths of fools and children: I wish every good mind which feels an inclination for satire would reflect that the finest satirist always has something of both in him.