Virtue by premeditation isn't worth much.
~ Georg C. Lichtenberg - [Virtue]

Man is to be found in reason, God in the passions.
~ Georg C. Lichtenberg - [Passion]

In each of us there is a little of all of us.
~ Georg C. Lichtenberg - [People]

I am convinced we do not only love ourselves in others but hate ourselves in others too.
~ Georg C. Lichtenberg - [People, Other]

If this is philosophy it is at any rate a philosophy that is not in its right mind.
~ Georg C. Lichtenberg - [Philosophers and Philosophy]

We often have need of a profound philosophy to restore to our feelings their original state of innocence, to find our way out of the rubble of things alien to us, to begin to feel for ourselves and to speak ourselves, and I might almost say to exist ourselves.
~ Georg C. Lichtenberg - [Philosophers and Philosophy]

A man is never more serious than when he praise himself.
~ Georg C. Lichtenberg - [Praise]

It is hardly to be believed how spiritual reflections when mixed with a little physics can hold people's attention and give them a livelier idea of God than do the often ill-applied examples of his wrath.
~ Georg C. Lichtenberg - [Preachers and Preaching]

Prejudices are so to speak the mechanical instincts of men: through their prejudices they do without any effort many things they would find too difficult to think through to the point of resolving to do them.
~ Georg C. Lichtenberg - [Prejudice]

The most dangerous untruths are truths slightly distorted.
~ Georg C. Lichtenberg - [Propaganda]

There exists a species of transcendental ventriloquism by means of which men can be made to believe that something said on earth comes from Heaven.
~ Georg C. Lichtenberg - [Prophecy]

With prophecies the commentator is often a more important man than the prophet.
~ Georg C. Lichtenberg - [Prophecy]

We say that someone occupies an official position, whereas it is the official position that occupies him.
~ Georg C. Lichtenberg - [Public Office]

If another Messiah was born he could hardly do so much good as the printing-press.
~ Georg C. Lichtenberg - [Publishing and Publishers]

Reason now gazes above the realm of the dark but warm feelings as the Alpine peaks do above the clouds. They behold the sun more clearly and distinctly, but they are cold and unfruitful.
~ Georg C. Lichtenberg - [Reason]

There is no more important rule of conduct in the world than this: attach yourself as much as you can to people who are abler than you and yet not so very different that you cannot understand them.
~ Georg C. Lichtenberg - [Rules]

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.
~ Georg C. Lichtenberg - [Sarcasm]

One cannot demand of a scholar that he show himself a scholar everywhere in society, but the whole tenor of his behavior must none the less betray the thinker, he must always be instructive, his way of judging a thing must even in the smallest matters be such that people can see what it will amount to when, quietly and self-collected, he puts this power to scholarly use.
~ Georg C. Lichtenberg - [Scholars and Scholarship]

People often become scholars for the same reason they become soldiers: simply because they are unfit for any other station. Their right hand has to earn them a livelihood; one might say they lie down like bears in winter and seek sustenance from their paws.
~ Georg C. Lichtenberg - [Scholars and Scholarship]

The most heated defenders of a science, who cannot endure the slightest sneer at it, are commonly those who have not made very much progress in it and are secretly aware of this defect.
~ Georg C. Lichtenberg - [Science and Scientists]