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
Just as the performance of the vilest and most wicked deeds requires spirit and talent, so even the greatest demand a certain insensitivity which under other circumstances we would call stupidity.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Both good and evil actions require a certain level of insensitivity or talent.
This quote from Georg C. Lichtenberg underscores the paradox that excelling in both immoral actions and virtuous deeds often entails a form of insensitivity. While society typically views insensitivity as a negative trait, the quote suggests that such a quality may be a necessary component in the pursuit of greatness or infamy, provoking thought about the moral dimensions of talent and determination in human behavior.
Themes
TalentInsensitivityMoralityActionGreatness
In practice
Example use cases
This quote could be used in a discussion about the moral implications of success in business.
More from Georg C. Lichtenberg
All quotes →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.
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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.
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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