Man can acquire accomplishments or he can become an animal, whichever he wants. God makes the animals, man makes himself.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- Humans can choose self-improvement or degrade themselves; they shape their own nature.
- In plain terms
- You choose to improve or become animalistic; you make yourself.
- What can you take from it?
- Self-made character depends on choice.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- How are you making yourself?
- What choices shape you?
Another view
It underplays how circumstances limit choice.
More from Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
We say that someone occupies an official position, whereas it is the official position that occupies him.
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Permalink to quote #56 The Greeks possessed a knowledge of human nature we seem hardly able to attain to without passing through the strengthening hibernation of a new barbarism.
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