Lichtenberg, Georg Christoph

"Some people read because they are too lazy to think."

"Everyone is a genius at least once a year; a real genius has his original ideas closer together."

"A person reveals his character by nothing so clearly as the joke he resents."

"Probably no invention came more easily to man than Heaven." - Aphorisms

"A book is a mirror: when a monkey looks in, no apostle can look out." - Aphorisms

"Man loves company even if only that of a small burning candle." - Aphorisms

"Nothing is more conducive to peace of mind than not having any opinion at all." - Aphorisms

"I have so often seen how people come by the name of genius - in the same way, that is, as certain insects come by the name of millipede, not because they have that number of feet, but because most people won't count up to fourteen." - The Reflections of Lichtenberg, ed. Norman Allison