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
Nothing makes one old so quickly as the ever-present thought that one is growing older.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Constantly thinking about aging can make you feel old faster.
This quote highlights the psychological effect of being preoccupied with the idea of aging. Lichtenberg suggests that the awareness of growing older can impact one's perception of youth and vitality, leading to a faster sense of decline than may actually be occurring physically.
Themes
AgingYouthPerceptionTimePsychology
In practice
Example use cases
This quote would be suitable for a speech at a senior center emphasizing the importance of a positive mindset about aging.
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 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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