Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

The Lichtenberg Reader:
Selected Writings of Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

Translated, Edited, and Introduced by
Franz H. Mautner and Henry Hatfield


To doubt things which are now believed without any further investigation whatsoever, that's the main point everywhere.

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Whenever we change, a lot of things get too big or too small for us; useless in a word. Just as we outgrow a pair of trousers, we outgrow acquaintances, libraries, principles, etc., at times before they're worn out and at times---and this is the worst of all---before we have new ones.

* * * *

Our life may be compared to a winter's day: we are born between midnight and 1 A.M., it's 8 o'clock before day dawns, it gets dark again before 4 in the afternoon, and around midnight we die.

These are examples of aphorisms that were written by Lichtenberg in the 1700's. Although he died in 1799, his words have a modernity that can't be denied. His Waste Books, a series of journals, are finally translated and published.