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
The noble simplicity in the works of nature only too often originates in the noble shortsightedness of him who observes it.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Nature's beauty is often perceived simply because of our limited understanding.
This quote reflects on how the simplicity found in nature can often be the result of the observer's lack of deeper insight. It suggests that our interpretations of the natural world can be shallow, and true appreciation comes from recognizing the complexity and depth that lies beneath the surface.
Themes
NatureSimplicityObservationUnderstandingBeauty
In practice
Example use cases
Using this quote during a lecture about the importance of environmental appreciation.
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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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?
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He who says he hates every kind of flattery, and says it in earnest, certainly does not yet know every kind of flattery.
Georg C. LichtenbergRead
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