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
We accumulate our opinions at an age when our understanding is at its weakest.
Interpretation
Our beliefs and opinions are often formed when we lack the maturity to fully understand them.
This quote by Georg C. Lichtenberg suggests that many of our firmly held beliefs and opinions are established during our early years, a time when our capacity for critical thinking and understanding of complex issues is still developing. As a result, these opinions may not be fully informed or reflective of deeper truths, highlighting the importance of continual learning and reassessment of our viewpoints as we gain more experience and knowledge.
In practice
In a discussion about how childhood experiences shape adult beliefs, this quote can serve as a reminder to stay open-minded.
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.
Many 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.
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.
The thoughts written on the walls of madhouses by their inmates might be worth publicizing.
The noble simplicity in the works of nature only too often originates in the noble shortsightedness of him who observes it.
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?
We have little control over the circumstances of life. We can't control the weather or the economy, and we can't control what other people say about or do to us. There is only one area where we have control--we can rule the kingdom inside. The heart of every problem is the problem in the heart.
Healing is the discovery of the Divinity within.
Good words," I replied. "But deeds must prove it also; and after he is well, remember you don't forget resolutions formed in the hour of fear.
If we look at the world around us, we see that we are conditioned to not listen deeply. Because isn't that what silence is? It's a listening, a deep wordless listening.
All good is born in prayer, and all good springs from it.
If you fixate on the worst-case scenario and it actually happens, youβve lived it twice.
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