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
With most men, unbelief in one thing springs from blind belief in another.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote suggests that rejecting one belief often comes from an unexamined acceptance of another belief.
In this quote, Georg C. Lichtenberg highlights a paradox in human thinking: that a steadfast denial of one idea is frequently rooted in an unquestioned acceptance of another. This reflects on the nature of belief systems, suggesting that individuals might subconsciously cling to certain convictions while dismissing others, revealing the complex interplay of faith and skepticism in human thought.
Themes
BeliefUnbeliefPhilosophyThinkingTruth
In practice
Example use cases
During a philosophical debate, one could quote this to illustrate the complexity of belief systems.
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.
Georg C. LichtenbergRead
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.
Georg C. LichtenbergRead
The thoughts written on the walls of madhouses by their inmates might be worth publicizing.
Georg C. LichtenbergRead
The noble simplicity in the works of nature only too often originates in the noble shortsightedness of him who observes it.
Georg C. LichtenbergRead
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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When we oppose the hidden conscience, it does us hurt. When we betray it, it judges us.
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Absolute truth belongs to Thee alone.
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Several times I asked myself, "Can it be that I have overlooked something, that there is something which I have failed to understand? Is it not possible that this state of despair is common to everyone?" And I searched for an answer to my questions in every area of knowledge acquired by man. For a long time I carried on my painstaking search; I did not search casually, out of mere curiosity, but painfully, persistently, day and night, like a dying man seeking salvation. I found nothing.
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I have not come to know atheism as a result of logical reasoning and still less as an event in my life: in me it is a matter of instinct.
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It was behaviour that I thought not far from racism, sexism or any other kind of prejudice or snobbery. 'Because you are not cute, I do not want to know you' was, to me, hardly different from suggesting 'because you are gay, I dislike you
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We cannot expect that all nations will adopt like systems, for conformity is the jailer of freedom and the enemy of growth.
John F. KennedyRead