10 Georg Christoph Lichtenberg Quotes on Humanity

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg quotes on humanity

6. It is we who are the measure of what is strange and miraculous: if we sought a universal measure the strange and miraculous would not occur and all things would be equal.

8. We can see nothing whatever of the soul unless it is visible in the expression of the countenance; one might call the faces at a large assembly of people a history of the human soul written in a kind of Chinese ideograms.

28. That man is the noblest creature may also be inferred from the fact that no other creature has yet contested this claim.

67. Sickness is mankind's greatest defect.

76. To err is human also in so far as animals seldom or never err, or at least only the cleverest of them do so.

91. The most perfect ape cannot draw an ape; only man can do that; but, likewise, only man regards the ability to do this as a sign of superiority.

94. Man is a masterpiece of creation if for no other reason than that, all the weight of evidence for determinism notwithstanding, he believes he has free will.

96. Man is to be found in reason, God in the passions.

160. We live in a world in which one fool makes many fools but one wise man only a few wise men.

170. Book review: G. C. Lichtenberg: a 'spy on humanity'