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 thoughts written on the walls of madhouses by their inmates might be worth publicizing.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The insights of mentally ill individuals can provide valuable perspectives on life and society.
This quote by Georg C. Lichtenberg suggests that the voices of people who are often marginalized or deemed as unfit by society, particularly those in psychiatric institutions, hold valuable wisdom and truths that could enlighten the broader public. It implies that their experiences and thoughts, often overlooked, could offer critical insights into human nature and societal norms.
Themes
WisdomInsightSocietyMental HealthTruth
In practice
Example use cases
During a mental health awareness event, this quote could be used to highlight the importance of listening to marginalized voices.
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 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
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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