A clever child brought up with a foolish one can…

A clever child brought up with a foolish one can itself become foolish. Man is so perfectable and corruptible he can become a fool through good sense.

Sourced, Aphorisms (1765-1799)

F 69

Other Georg Christoph Lichtenberg Quotes

Rational free spirits are the light brigade who go on ahead and reconnoitre the ground which the heavy brigade of the orthodox will eventually occupy. - View Quote Details on Rational free spirits are the light brigade who go on…
Virtue by premeditation isn’t worth much. - View Quote Details on Virtue by premeditation isn’t worth much.
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. - View Quote Details on The Greeks possessed a knowledge of human nature we seem…
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. - View Quote Details on What I do not like about our definitions of genius…
Perhaps in time the so-called Dark Ages will be thought of as including our own. - View Quote Details on Perhaps in time the so-called Dark Ages will be thought…
He who is enamored of himself will at least have the advantage of being inconvenienced by few rivals. - View Quote Details on He who is enamored of himself will at least have…
With a pen in my hand I have successfully stormed bulwarks from which others armed with sword and excommunication have been repulsed. - View Quote Details on With a pen in my hand I have successfully stormed…
If countries were named after the words you first hear when you go there, England would have to be called Damn It. - View Quote Details on If countries were named after the words you first hear…
There are people who possess not so much genius as a certain talent for perceiving the desires of the century, or even of the decade, before it has done so itself. - View Quote Details on There are people who possess not so much genius as…
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. - View Quote Details on As the few adepts in such things well know, universal…