Background Image
...
To Read Means To Borrow; To Create Out Of One S Readings Is Paying Off One's Debts.
-Georg C. Lichtenberg
...
Please Wait....
Translating....

To Read Means To

Georg C. Lichtenberg
...
To Read Means To Borrow; To Create Out Of One S Readings Is Paying Off One's Debts.

Understanding the Quote: "to read means to borrow; to create out of one s readings..."

This quote by Georg C. Lichtenberg reflects deeply on the theme of book. It connects to the universal human journey of purpose, motivation, and reflection. Often categorized under Book, Reading, Mean, the quote offers insight, emotional clarity, and intellectual inspiration to readers worldwide.

Whether you’re a student exploring new ideas, a leader trying to motivate your team, or someone seeking direction in life — this quote provides value. It resonates because it’s more than words — it’s a bridge between experience and wisdom. It shows how Georg C. Lichtenberg interprets life's core challenges and triumphs.

Lessons From the Quote

This quote teaches resilience and focus. It reminds readers that no matter where they stand in life, reflection and self-awareness lead to growth. Each word has meaning, and when studied, it becomes clear how impactful thoughtful language can be.

About Georg C. Lichtenberg

Georg C. Lichtenberg is celebrated for insightful thoughts on book and reading. Their legacy lives on through writings that guide, comfort, and inspire. Discover more on their profile page.

Actionable Takeaways

  • Reflect on how this quote applies to your current life path.
  • Share the message with someone who needs inspiration.
  • Write your thoughts on this quote in a journal or blog post.
  • Use it as a daily affirmation or reminder.

Closing Thoughts

Quotes like this endure because they capture universal truths. They comfort us in solitude and empower us in groups. Carry this quote forward — live by its wisdom, share its message, and keep its essence alive.

Views: 44974
Topic
Book
Reading
Mean
More From Georg C. Lichtenberg
Popular Presentation Today Is All Too Often That Which Puts The Mob In A Position To Talk About Something Without Understanding It.
Understanding
Today
Position
The Fly That Doesn't Want To Be Swatted Is Most Secure When It Lights On The Fly-swatter.
Inspirational
Philosophy
Philosophical
Man Loves Company - Even If It Is Only That Of A Small Burning Candle.
Love
Being Alone
Men
Sickness Is Mankind's Greatest Defect.
Sickness
Mankind
Defects
Do Not Say Hypothesis, And Even Less Theory: Say Way Of Thinking.
Science
Thinking
Way
Man Is Always Partial And Is Quite Right To Be. Even Impartiality Is Partial.
Men
Neutrality
Impartiality
To Many People Virtue Consists Chiefly In Repenting Faults, Not In Avoiding Them.
Integrity
People
Faults
Universal Morality Is To Be Found In Little Everyday Penny-events Just As Much As In Great Ones.
Everyday
Littles
Pennies
It Not Seldom Happens That In The Purposeless Rovings And Wanderings Of The Imagination We Hunt Down Such Game As Can Be Put To Use By Our Purposeful Philosophy In Its Well-ordered Household.
Philosophy
Games
Imagination
I Am Convinced We Do Not Only Love Ourselves In Others But Hate Ourselves In Others Too.
Love
Hate
Convinced
I Have Remarked Very Clearly That I Am Often Of One Opinion When I Am Lying Down And Of Another When I Am Standing Up.
Lying
Down And
Opinion
The "second Sight" Possessed By The Highlanders In Scotland Is Actually A Foreknowledge Of Future Events. I Believe They Possess This Gift Because They Don't Wear Trousers.
Believe
Sight
Scotland
Whenever He Composes A Critical Review, I Have Been Told, He Gets An Enormous Erection.
Reviews
Enormous
Critical
The Motives That Lead Us To Do Anything Might Be Arranged Like The Thirty-two Winds And Might Be Given Names On The Same Pattern: For Instance, "bread-bread-fame" Or "fame-fame-bread."
Wind
Names
Two
Deliberate Virtue Is Never Worth Much: The Virtue Of Feeling Or Habit Is The Thing.
Feelings
Virtue
Habit
Much Can Be Inferred About A Man From His Mistress: In Her One Beholds His Weaknesses And His Dreams.
Dream
Men
Mistress
If We Thought More For Ourselves We Would Have Very Many More Bad Books And Very Many More Good Ones.
Book
Ifs
Never Trust A Man Who Lays His Hand On His Heart When He Assures You Of Anything.
Heart
Men
Hands
No People Are More Conceited Than Those Who Depict Their Own Feelings, Especially If They Happen To Have A Little Prose At Their Command For The Occasion.
Conceited
People
Feelings
In Mathematical Analysis We Call X The Undetermined Part Of Line A: The Rest We Don't Call Y, As We Do In Common Life, But A-x. Hence Mathematical Language Has Great Advantages Over The Common Language.
Life
Math
Lines
Human Pride Is A Strange Thing; It Cannot Easily Be Suppressed, And If You Stop Up Hole A Will Peep Forth Again In A Twinkling From Another Hole B, And If This Is Closed It Is Ready To Come Out At Hole C, And So On.
Pride
Strange
Twinkling
The More Experiences And Experiments Accumulate In The Exploration Of Nature, The More Precarious The Theories Become. But It Is Not Always Good To Discard Them Immediately On This Account. For Every Hypothesis Which Once Was Sound Was Useful For Thinking Of Previous Phenomena In The Proper Interrelations And For Keeping Them In Context. We Ought To Set Down Contradictory Experiences Separately, Until Enough Have Accumulated To Make Building A New Structure Worthwhile.
Nature
Science
Thinking
I Have Never Yet Met Anyone Who Did Not Think It Was An Agreeable Sensation To Cut Tinfoil With Scissors.
Cutting
Thinking
Pleasure
Reading Means Borrowing.
Book
Reading
Mean
Perhaps Pure Reason Without Heart Would Never Have Thought Of God.
Heart
Reason
Pure
Be Wary Of Passing The Judgment: Obscure. To Find Something Obscure Poses No Difficult, Elephants And Poodles Find Many Things Obscure.
Elephants
Obscurity
Poodles
Pain Warns Us Not To Exert Our Limbs To The Point Of Breaking Them. How Much Knowledge Would We Not Need To Recognize This By The Exercise Of Mere Reason.
Pain
Exercise
Needs
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.
Mind
Criticism
Weakness
Delicacy In Woman Is Strength.
Delicacy
In Each Of Us There Is A Little Of All Of Us.
Littles
One Should Never Trust A Person Who, While Assuring You Of Something, Puts His Hands On His Heart.
Heart
Hands
Never Trust
Ambition And Suspicion Always Go Together.
Ambition
Together
Suspicion
There Is Something In The Character Of Every Man Which Cannot Be Broken In--the Skeleton Of His Character; And To Try To Alter This Is Like Training A Sheep For Draught Purposes.
Character
Men
Skeletons
Never Undertake Anything For Which You Wouldn't Have The Courage To Ask The Blessings Of Heaven.
Wise
Courage
Blessing
There Is No Greater Impediment To Progress In The Sciences Than The Desire To See It Take Place Too Quickly.
Science
Progress
Desire
One Of Our Forefathers Must Have Read A Forbidden Book.
Book
Forbidden
Forefathers
Nothing Puts A Greater Obstacle In The Way Of The Progress Of Knowledge Than Thinking That One Knows What One Does Not Yet Know.
Ignorance
Thinking
Progress
We Say That Someone Occupies An Official Position, Whereas It Is The Official Position That Occupies Him.
Sea
Position
Public Office
When An Acquaintance Goes By I Often Step Back From My Window, Not So Much To Spare Him The Effort Of Acknowledging Me As To Spare Myself The Embarrassment Of Seeing That He Has Not Done So.
Effort
Done
Steps
Astronomy Is Perhaps The Science Whose Discoveries Owe Least To Chance, In Which Human Understanding Appears In Its Whole Magnitude, And Through Which Man Can Best Learn How Small He Is.
Men
Discovery
Understanding
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.
Plato
Pride
Dwelling
The Drive To Propagate Our Race Has Also Propagated A Lot Of Other Things
Sex
Race
Many Are Less Fortunate Than You' May Not Be A Roof To Live Under, But It Will Serve To Retire Beneath In The Event Of A Shower.
Events
May
Showers
Doubt Must Be No More Than Vigilance, Otherwise It Can Become Dangerous.
Doubt
Dangerous
Vigilance
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.
Men
Thinking
Effort
How Few Friends Would Remain Friends If Each Could See The Sentiments Of The Other In Their Entirety.
Few Friends
Sentiments
Ifs
If Brandy Was Made Out Of Sparrows There Would Soon Be No Sparrows.
Sparrows
Made
Brandy
Nothing Is More Conducive To Peace Of Mind Than Not Having Any Opinion At All.
Inspirational
Peace
Thinking
To Do Just The Opposite Is Also A Form Of Imitation.
Education
Opposites
Dignity
Erudition Can Produce Foliage Without Bearing Fruit.
Fruit
Produce
Foliage
I Cannot Say Whether Things Will Get Better If We Change; What I Can Say Is They Must Change If They Are To Get Better.
Inspirational
Motivational
Change
A Book Is A Mirror: If An Ape Looks Into It An Apostle Is Hardly Likely To Look Out.
Funny
Book
Mirrors
There Is A Great Difference Between Believing In Something And Believing In It Again.
Believe
Differences
Believing In Something
Knowledge Acquired Too Rapidly And Without Being Personally Supplemented Is Never Very Productive.
Productive
He Marvelled At The Fact That The Cats Had Two Holes Cut In Their Fur At Precisely The Spot Where Their Eyes Were.
Cat
Eye
Cutting
Even Truth Needs To Be Clad In New Garments If It Is To Appeal To A New Age.
Birthday
Age
Needs
Every Condition Of The Soul Has Its Own Sign And Expression...so You Will See How Hard It Is To Seem Original Without Being So.
Expression
Soul
Originals
The Most Successful Tempters And Thus The Most Dangerous Are The Deluded Deluders.
Successful
Temptation
Dangerous
The Sure Conviction That We Could If We Wanted To Is The Reason So Many Good Minds Are Idle.
Mind
Action
Reason
Of All The Inventions Of Man I Doubt Whether Any Was More Easily Accomplished Than That Of A Heaven.
Men
Heaven
Doubt
Is It So Unjust That A Man Should Leave The World By The Same Gate Through Which He Entered It?
Men
Unjust
World
What Is The Good Of Drawing Conclusions From Experience? I Don't Deny We Sometimes Draw The Right Conclusions, But Don't We Just As Often Draw The Wrong Ones?
Drawing
Sometimes
Deny
It Is Strange That Only Extraordinary Men Make The Discoveries, Which Later Appear So Easy And Simple.
Simple
Men
Discovery
To Be Content With Life Or To Live Merrily, Rather All That Is Required Is That We Bestow On All Things Only A Fleeting, Superficial Glance; The More Thoughtful We Become The More Earnest We Grow.
Thoughtful
Superficial Things
Fleeting
To Do The Opposite Of Something Is Also A Form Of Imitation, Namely An Imitation Of Its Opposite.
Opposites
Imitation
Form
I Forget The Greater Part Of What I Read, But All The Same It Nourishes My Mind.
Mind
Forget
Greater
Too Much Is Unwholesome.
Too Much
Man Can Acquire Accomplishments Or He Can Become An Animal, Whichever He Wants. God Makes The Animals, Man Makes Himself.
Inspirational
God
Animal
Courage, Garrulousness And The Mob Are On Our Side. What More Do We Want?
Want
Sides
If Countries Were Named After The Words You First Hear When You Go There, England Would Have To Be Called Damn It.
Country
Firsts
England
He Who Is In Love With Himself Has At Least This Advantage - He Won't Encounter Many Rivals.
Love
Rivals
Encounters
A Donkey Appears To Me Like A Horse Translated Into Dutch.
Horse
Dutch
Donkey
To Err Is Human Also In So Far As Animals Seldom Or Never Err, Or At Least Only The Cleverest Of Them Do So.
Mistake
Animal
Humans
God Created Man In His Own Image, Says The Bible; Philosophers Reverse The Process: They Create God In Theirs.
Men
Philosopher
Process
One Can Live In This World On Soothsaying But Not On Truth Saying.
Truth
World
This World
It Is A Great Shame; Most Of Our Words Are Misused Tools / Which Often Still Smell Of The Mud In Which Previous Owners / Desecrated Them.
Smell
Our Words
Tools
Just As The Performance Of The Vilest And Most Wicked Deeds Requires Spirit And Talent, So Even The Greatest Demand A Certain Insensitivity Which Under Other Circumstances We Would Call Stupidity.
Stupidity
Wicked
Demand
To Live When You Do Not Want To Is Dreadful, But It Would Be Even More Terrible To Be Immortal When You Did Not Want To Be. As Things Are, However, The Whole Ghastly Burden Is Suspended From Me By A Thread Which I Can Cut In Two With A Penny-knife.
Cutting
Knives
Two
People Nowadays Have Such High Hopes Of America And The Political Conditions Obtaining There That One Might Say The Desires, At Least The Secret Desires, Of All Enlightened Europeans Are Deflected To The West, Like Our Magnetic Needles.
America
People
Political
God: Personified Incomprehensibility.
To Read Means To Borrow; To Create Out Of One S Readings Is Paying Off One's Debts.
Book
Reading
Mean
The Ordinary Man Is Ruined By The Flesh Lusting Against The Spirit; The Scholar By The Spirit Lusting Too Much Against The Flesh.
Men
Lust
Ordinary
It Is Too Bad If You Have To Do Everything Upon Reflection And Can't Do Anything From Early Habit.
Reflection
Habit
Ifs
Theologians Always Try To Turn The Bible Into A Book Without Common Sense.
Book
Common Sense
Religion
A Man Has Virtues Enough If He Deserves Pardon For His Faults On Account Of Them.
Men
Faults
Virtue
It Is Certainly Not A Matter Of Indifference Whether I Learn Something Without Effort Or Finally Arrive At It Myself Through My System Of Thought. In The Latter Case Everything Has Roots, In The Former It Is Merely Superficial.
Roots
Effort
Matter
The Pleasures Of The Imagination Are As It Were Only Drawings And Models Which Are Played With By Poor People Who Cannot Afford The Real Thing.
Real
Drawing
People
With Prophecies The Commentator Is Often A More Important Man Than The Prophet.
Men
Important
Prophet
The Writer Who Cannot Sometimes Throw Away A Thought About Which Another Man Would Have Written Dissertations, Without Worry Whether Or Not The Reader Will Find It, Will Never Become A Great Writer.
Writing
Men
Worry
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.
Spiritual
Reflection
Wrath
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.
Average
Mind
Brain
Men Still Have To Be Governed By Deception.
Men
Hype
Political
Good Taste Is Either That Which Agrees With My Taste Or That Which Subjects Itself To The Rule Of Reason. From This We Can See How Useful It Is To Employ Reason In Seeking Out The Laws Of Taste.
Law
Taste
Reason
It Is In Most Cases More Difficult To Make Intelligent People Believe That You Are What You Are Not, Than Really To Become What You Would Appear To Be.
Believe
Intelligent
People
A Man Is Never More Serious Than When He Praise Himself.
Men
Serious
Praise
We Cannot Remember Too Often That When We Observe Nature, And Especially The Ordering Of Nature, It Is Always Ourselves Alone We Are Observing.
Vision
Remember
Awe
I Ceased In The Year 1764 To Believe That One Can Convince One’s Opponents With Arguments Printed In Books. It Is Not To Do That, Therefore, That I Have Taken Up My Pen, But Merely So As To Annoy Them, And To Bestow Strength And Courage On Those On Our Own Side, And To Make It Known To The Others That They Have Not Convinced Us.
Believe
Book
Taken
There Can Hardly Be A Stranger Commodity In The World Than Books. Printed By People Who Don't Understand Them; Sold By People Who Don't Understand Them; Bound, Criticized And Read By People Who Don't Understand Them; And Now Even Written By People Who Don't Understand Them.
Book
People
World
I Made The Journey To Knowledge Like Dogs Who Go For Walks With Their Masters, A Hundred Times Forward And Backward Over The Same Territory; And When I Arrived I Was Tired.
Dog
Tired
Journey
Man Is A Masterpiece Of Creation . . .
Men
Creation
Masterpiece
Man Is To Be Found In Reason, God In The Passions.
God
Passion
Men
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.
Mind
Gliding
Might
He Who Knows Himself Properly Can Very Soon Learn To Know All Other Men. It Is All Reflection.
Reflection
Men
Knows
To See Every Day How People Get The Name 'genius' Just As The Wood-lice In The Cellar The Name 'millipede'-not Because They Have That Many Feet, But Because Most People Don't Want To Count To 14-this Has Had The Result That I Don't Believe Anyone Any More Without Checking.
Truth
Believe
Science
To Make Astute People Believe One Is What One Is Not Is, In Most Cases, Harder Than Actually To Become What One Wishes To Appear.
Believe
Character
People
Perhaps In Time The So-called Dark Ages Will Be Thought Of As Including Our Own.
Time
Anger
Dark
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.
Men
Perfect
Apes
Great Men Too Make Mistakes, And Many Among Them Do It So Often That One Is Almost Tempted To Call Them Little Men.
Mistake
Greatness
Men
What A Blessing It Would Be If We Could Open And Shut Our Ears...as Easily As We Open And Shut Our Eyes.
Life
Eye
Loss
Ideas Too Are A Life And A World.
Ideas
World
Ask Yourself Always: How Can This Be Done Better?
Inspirational
Done
Asks
After All, Is Our Idea Of God Anything More Than Personified Incomprehensibility?
God
Ideas
We Have No Words For Speaking Of Wisdom To The Stupid. He Who Understands The Wise Is Wise Already.
Wise
Wisdom
Stupid
The Course Of The Seasons Is A Piece Of Clockwork, With A Cuckoo To Call When It Is Spring.
Spring
Cuckoos
Pieces
Nothing Can Contribute More To Peace Of Soul Than The Lack Of Any Opinion Whatever.
Peace
Soul
Opinion
Above All Things Expand The Frontiers Of Science: Without This The Rest Counts For Nothing.
Science
Accounts
All Things
We Now Possess Four Principles Of Morality: 1) A Philosophical: Do Good For Its Own Sake, Out Of Respect For The Law; 2) A Religious: Do Good Because It Is God's Will, Out Of Love Of God; 3) A Human: Do Good Because It Will Promote Your Happiness, Out Of Self-love; 4) A Political: Do Good Because It Will Promote The Welfare Of The Society Of Which You Are A Part, Out Of Love Of Society Having Regard To Yourself. But Is This Not All One Single Principle, Only Viewed From Different Sides?
Religious
Philosophical
Character
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.
Men
Animal
Mind
Those Who Have Racked Their Brains To Discover New Proofs Have Perhaps Been Induced To Do So By A Compulsion They Could Not Quite Explain To Themselves. Instead Of Giving Us Their New Proofs They Should Have Explained To Us The Motivation That Constrained Them To Search For Them.
Motivation
Should Have
Giving
How Did Mankind Ever Come By The Idea Of Liberty? What A Grand Thought It Was!
Ideas
Liberty
Mankind
The Wisdom Of Providence Is As Much Revealed In The Rarity Of Genius, As In The Circumstance That Not Everyone Is Deaf Or Blind.
Genius
Blind
Deaf
If You Are Going To Build Something In The Air It Is Always Better To Build Castles Than Houses Of Cards.
House Of Cards
Air
Castles
The Greatest Things In The World Are Brought About By Other Things Which We Count As Nothing: Little Causes We Overlook But Which At Length Accumulate.
World
Littles
Causes
With A Pen In My Hand I Have Successfully Stormed Bulwarks From Which Others Armed With Sword And Excommunication Have Been Repulsed.
Hands
Pens
Has Beens
The Highest Point To Which A Weak But Experienced Mind Can Rise Is Detecting The Weakness Of Better Men.
Men
Mind
Weakness
There Are Two Ways Of Extending Life: Firstly By Moving The Two Points "born" And "died" Farther Away From One Another. The Other Method Is To Go More Slowly And Leave The Two Points Wherever God Wills They Should Be, And This Method Is For The Philosophers.
Moving
Two
Way
We Judge Nothing So Hastily As Character, And Yet There Is Nothing Over Which We Should Be More Cautious.... I Have Always Found That The So-called Bad People Improve On Closer Acquaintance, While The Good Fall Off.
Fall
Character
Judging
The Worst Thing You Can Possibly Do Is Worrying And Thinking About What You Could Have Done.
Happiness
Thinking
Worry
Many Things About Our Bodies Would Not Seem To Us So Filthy And Obscene If We Did Not Have The Idea Of Nobility In Our Heads.
Ideas
Body
Nobility
In The World We Live In, One Fool Makes Many Fools, But One Sage Only A Few Sages.
Sage
World
Fool
He Who Says He Hates Every Kind Of Flattery, And Says It In Earnest, Certainly Does Not Yet Know Every Kind Of Flattery.
Hate
Doe
Flattery
Here Take Back The Stuff That I Am, Nature, Knead It Back Into The Dough Of Being, Make Of Me A Bush, A Cloud, Whatever You Will, Even A Man, Only No Longer Make Me.
Suicide
Nature
Suicidal
If Nature Be Regarded As The Teacher And We Poor Human Beings As Her Pupils, The Human Race Presents A Very Curious Picture. We All Sit Together At A Lecture And Possess The Necessary Principles For Understanding It, Yet We Always Pay More Attention To The Chatter Of Our Fellow Students Than To The Lecturer's Discourse. Or, If Our Neighbor Copies Something Down, We Sneak It From Him, Stealing What He Himself May Have Heard Imperfectly, And Add It To Our Own Errors Of Spelling And Opinion.
Teacher
Errors
Race
A Good Method Of Discovery Is To Imagine Certain Members Of A System Removed And Then See How What Is Left Would Behave: For Example, Where Would We Be If Iron Were Absent From The World: This Is An Old Example.
Science
Discovery
Iron
Cautiousness In Judgment Is Nowadays To Be Recommended To Each And Every One: If We Gained Only One Incontestable Truth Every Ten Years From Each Of Our Philosophical Writers The Harvest We Reaped Would Be Sufficient.
Philosophical
Years
Would Be
The Natural Scientists Of The Previous Age Knew Less Than We Do And Believed They Were Very Close To The Goal: We Have Taken Very Great Steps In Its Direction And Now Discover We Are Still Very Far Away From It. With The Most Rational Philosophers An Increase In Their Knowledge Is Always Attended By An Increased Conviction Of Their Ignorance.
Taken
Ignorance
Science
Food Probably Has A Very Great Influence On The Condition Of Men. Wine Exercises A More Visible Influence, Food Does It More Slowly But Perhaps Just As Surely. Who Knows If A Well-prepared Soup Was Not Responsible For The Pneumatic Pump Or A Poor One For A War?
War
Food
Wine
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.
Science
Secret
Progress
The Lower Classes Of Men, Though They Do Not Think It Worthwhile To Record What They Perceive, Nevertheless Perceive Everything That Is Worth Noting; The Difference Between Them And A Man Of Learning Often Consists In Nothing More Than The Latter's Facility For Expression.
Thinking
Men
Expression
There Are People Who Believe Everything Is Sane And Sensible That Is Done With A Solemn Face. ... It Is No Great Art To Say Something Briefly When, Like Tacitus, One Has Something To Say; When One Has Nothing To Say, However, And None The Less Writes A Whole Book And Makes Truth ... Into A Liar - That I Call An Achievement.
Art
Liars
Believe
The Rules Of Grammar Are Mere Human Statutes, Which Is Why When He Speaks Out Of The Possessed The Devil Himself Speaks Bad Latin.
Latin
Speaks Out
Devil
Just As We Outgrow A Pair Of Trousers, We Outgrow Acquaintances, Libraries, Principles, Etc., At Times Before They're Worn Out And Times - And This Is The Worst Of All - Before We Have New Ones.
Time
Library
Principles
The Book Which Most Deserved To Be Banned Would Be A Catalog Of Banned Books.
Book
Would Be
Banned Books
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.
War
Dark
Clouds
One's First Step In Wisdom Is To Question Everything - And One's Last Is To Come To Terms With Everything.
Inspirational
Motivational
Success
One Of The Greatest Creations Of The Human Mind Is The Art Of Reviewing Books Without Having Read Them.
Art
Book
Mind
The Man Was Such An Intellectual He Was Of Almost No Use.
Men
Intellectual
Use
We Are Obliged To Regard Many Of Our Original Minds As Crazy At Least Until We Have Become As Clever As They Are.
Clever
Crazy
Work
Do Not Commence Your Exercises In Philosophy In Those Regions Where An Error Can Deliver You Over To The Executioner.
Philosophy
Exercise
Errors
I Am Always Grieved When A Man Of Real Talent Dies. The World Needs Such Men More Than Heaven Does.
Real
Men
Heaven
There Are People Who Think That Everything One Does With A Serious Face Is Sensible.
Thinking
People
Doe
If All Else Fails, The Character Of A Man Can Be Recognized By Nothing So Surely As By A Jest Which He Takes Badly.
Character
Men
Failing
A Man Of Spirit Must Not Think Of The Word Difficulty As So Much As Existing. Away With It!
Men
Thinking
Spirit
If There Were Only Turnips And Potatoes In The World, Someone Would Complain That Plants Grow The Wrong Way.
Food
Complaining
World
Nothing Makes One Old So Quickly As The Ever-present Thought That One Is Growing Older.
Growing Up
Growing
Growing Old
With Most Men, Unbelief In One Thing Springs From Blind Belief In Another.
Spring
Men
Blind Belief
One Is Rarely An Impulsive Innovator After The Age Of Sixty, But One Can Still Be A Very Fine Orderly And Inventive Thinker. One Rarely Procreates Children At That Age, But One Is All The More Skilled At Educating Those Who Have Already Been Procreated, And Education Is Procreation Of Another Kind.
Time
Children
Age
Affectation Is A Very Good Word When Someone Does Not Wish To Confess To What He Would None The Less Like To Believe Of Himself.
Believe
Wish
Doe
The Excuses We Make To Ourselves When We Want To Do Something Are Excellent Material For Soliloquies, For They Are Rarely Made Except When We Are Alone, And Are Very Often Made Aloud.
Want
Excuse
Excellent
There Are People Who Can Believe Anything They Wish. What Lucky Creatures!
Believe
People
Wish
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.
Greek
Hibernation
Able
What We Are Able To Judge With Feeling Is Very Little; The Rest Is All Prejudice And Complaisance.
Judging
Feelings
Able
There Is Something In Our Minds Like Sunshine And The Weather, Which Is Not Under Our Control. When I Write, The Best Things Come To Me From I Know Not Where.
Writing
Sunshine
Weather
So-called Professional Mathematicians Have, In Their Reliance On The Relative Incapacity Of The Rest Of Mankind, Acquired For Themselves A Reputation For Profundity Very Similar To The Reputation For Sanctity Possessed By Theologians.
Math
Reputation
Sanctity
If All Mankind Were Suddenly To Practice Honesty, Many Thousands Of People Would Be Sure To Starve.
Honesty
Practice
People
Body And Soul: A Horse Harnessed Beside An Ox.
Horse
Soul
Body
I Have Often Noticed That When People Come To Understand A Mathematical Proposition In Some Other Way Than That Of The Ordinary Demonstration, They Promptly Say, "oh, I See. That's How It Must Be." This Is A Sign That They Explain It To Themselves From Within Their Own System.
Math
People
Understanding
Be Attentive, Feel Nothing In Vain, Measure And Compare: This Is The Whole Law Of Philosophy.
Philosophy
Law
Advice
That Man Is The Noblest Creature May Also Be Inferred From The Fact That No Other Creature Has Yet Contested This Claim.
Nature
Men
Humanity
The Greatest Events Occur Without Intention Playing Any Part In Them; Chance Makes Good Mistakes And Undoes The Most Carefully Planned Undertaking. The World's Greatest Events Are Not Produced, They Happen.
Mistake
Events
World
To Write Brashly About Some Things, It Is Almost Necessary Not To Know Much About Them.
Writing
Knows
One Must Judge Men Not By Their Opinions, But By What Their Opinions Have Made Of Them.
Character
Men
Judging
The Most Entertaining Surface On Earth Is The Human Face.
Earth
Faces
Surface
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.
Expression
People
Soul
When A Book And A Head Collide And A Hollow Sound Is Heard, Must It Always Have Come From The Book?
Book
Writing
Sound
The American Who First Discovered Columbus Made A Bad Discovery.
Discovery
Firsts
Columbus
Why Does A Suppurating Lung Give So Little Warning And A Sore On The Finger So Much?
Giving
Doe
Warning
Those Who Never Have Time Do Least
Achievement
The Most Dangerous Untruths Are Truths Slightly Distorted.
Truth
Propaganda
Dangerous
As I Take Up My Pen I Feel Myself So Full, So Equal To My Subject, And See My Book So Clearly Before Me In Embryo, I Would Almost Like To Try To Say It All In A Single Word.
Art
Book
Writing
Everyone Is A Genius At Least Once A Year. The Real Geniuses Simply Have Their Bright Ideas Closer Together.
Wisdom
Real
Years
How Might Letters Be Most Efficiently Copied So That The Blind Might Read Them With Their Fingers?
Science
Letters
Might
How Happily Some People Would Live If They Troubled Themselves As Little About Other People's Business As About Their Own.
People
Littles
Ifs
As The Few Adepts In Such Things Well Know, Universal Morality Is To Be Found In Little Everyday Penny-events Just As Much As In Great Ones. There Is So Much Goodness And Ingenuity In A Raindrop That An Apothecary Wouldn't Let It Go For Less Than Half-a-crown.
Everyday
Let It Go
Pennies
The Greater Part Of Human Misery Is Caused By Indolence.
Misery
Indolence
Humans
It Often Takes More Courage To Change One's Opinion Than To Stick To It.
Change
Fear
Sticks
Some Theories Are Good For Nothing Except To Be Argued About.
Theory
It Is Astonishing How Much The Word Infinitely Is Misused: Everything Is Infinitely More Beautiful, Infinitely Better, Etc. The Concept Must Have Something Pleasing About It, Or Its Misuse Could Not Have Become So General.
Beautiful
Science
Etc
Nothing Reveals A Man's Character Better Than The Kind Of Joke At Which He Takes Offense.
Humor
Character
Men
Everyone Should Study At Least Enough Philosophy And Belles-lettres To Make His Sexual Experience More Delectable.
Philosophy
Study
Enough
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.
People
Important
Different
I Would Give Something To Know For Whose Sake Precisely Those Deeds Were Really Done Which Report Says Were Done For The Fatherland.
Giving
Done
Deeds
It Is With Epigrams As With Other Inventions; The Best Ones Annoy Us Because We Didn't Think Of Them Ourselves.
Thinking
Annoying
Invention
Doubt Everything At Least Once, Even The Sentence "two Times Two Is Four."
Two
Doubt
Four
He Was Then In His Fifty-fourth Year, When Even In The Case Of Poets Reason And Passion Begin To Discuss A Peace Treaty And Usually Conclude It Not Very Long Afterwards.
Time
Peace
Passion
What I Do Not Like About Our Definitions Of Genius Is That There Is In Them Nothing Of The Day Of Judgment, Nothing Of Resounding Through Eternity And Nothing Of The Footsteps Of The Almighty.
Genius
Definitions
Judgment
There Are Many Who Believe That 'marriage Is Not A Word - It Is A Sentence!' Whether You Are Indeed 'married' Or If You Are 'single', I Am Sure That Funny Quotes On Weddings And Marriages Always Tend To Put A Wicked Smile To The Face. It Is Often Said That 'people Who Are Married Are Often Desperate To Get Out Of It And People Who Are Single Can't Wait To Get In!'
Believe
People
Waiting
Do Not Judge God's World From Your Own. Trim Your Own Hedge As You Wish And Plant Your Flowers In The Patterns You Can Understand, But Do Not Judge The Garden Of Nature From Your Little Window Box.
Flower
Garden
Judging
Do We Write Books So That They Shall Merely Be Read? Don't We Also Write Them For Employment In The Household? For One That Is Read From Start To Finish, Thousands Are Leafed Through, Other Thousands Lie Motionless, Others Are Jammed Against Mouseholes, Thrown At Rats, Others Are Stood On, Sat On, Drummed On, Have Gingerbread Baked On Them Or Are Used To Light Pipes.
Lying
Book
Reading
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.
Believe
Mean
Men
Trending Author
Wilma Rudolph
Shel Silverstein
Louis D. Brandeis
Moss Hart
Mort Kondracke
Fanny Kemble
Category
Information