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.
Georg C. LichtenbergRead
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.
Interpretation
What this quote means
It's often more challenging to convince others of your false persona than to actually grow into the person you aspire to be.
This quote emphasizes the difficulty of maintaining a facade and the importance of authenticity. Lichtenberg suggests that it is typically a greater challenge to deceive others into believing you are something you are not than it is to genuinely develop the qualities or skills you wish to embody. The underlying message advocates for self-improvement and personal growth over pretension and deception.
Themes
AuthenticitySelf-ImprovementDeceptionAppearanceTruth
In practice
Example use cases
In a motivational speech about self-growth, this quote can illustrate the value of being true to oneself.
More from Georg C. Lichtenberg
All quotes βMany 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.
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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.
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The thoughts written on the walls of madhouses by their inmates might be worth publicizing.
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The noble simplicity in the works of nature only too often originates in the noble shortsightedness of him who observes it.
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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?
Georg C. LichtenbergRead
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