God created man in His own image, says the Bible;…

God created man in His own image, says the Bible; philosophers reverse the process: they create God in theirs.

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Other Georg Christoph Lichtenberg Quotes

He who says he hates every kind of flattery, and says it in earnest, certainly does not yet know every kind of flattery. - View Quote Details on He who says he hates every kind of flattery, and…
Brief biography at Kirjasto (Pegasos) - View Quote Details on Brief biography at Kirjasto (Pegasos)
First there is a time when we believe everything, then for a little while we believe with discrimination, then we believe nothing whatever, and then we believe everything again — and, moreover, give reasons why we believe. - View Quote Details on First there is a time when we believe everything, then…
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. - View Quote Details on Just as the performance of the vilest and most wicked…
A great speech is easy to learn by heart and a great poem even easier. How hard it would be to memorize as many words linked together senselessly, or a speech in a foreign tongue! Sense and understanding thus come to the aid of memory. Sense is order and order is in the last resort conformity with our nature. When we speak rationally we are only speaking in accordance with the nature of our being. That is why we devise genera and species in the case of plants and animals. The hypotheses we make belong here too: we are obliged to have them because otherwise we would unable to retain things… The question is, however, whether everything is legible to us. Certainly experiment and reflection enable us to introduce a significance into what is not legible, either to us or at all: thus we see faces or landscapes in the sand, though they are certainly not there. The introducion of symmetries belongs here too, silhouettes in inkblots, etc. Likewise the gradation we establish in the order of creatures: all this is not in the things but in us. In general we cannot remember too often that when we observe nature, and especially the ordering of nature, it is always ourselves alone we are observing. - View Quote Details on A great speech is easy to learn by heart and…
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. - View Quote Details on To be content with life — or to live merrily,…
There are people that can believe everything they want. These are happy creatures. - View Quote Details on There are people that can believe everything they want. These…
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…
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. - View Quote Details on So-called professional mathematicians have, in their reliance on the relative…
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. - View Quote Details on One cannot demand of a scholar that he show himself…