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
I forget most of what I read, just as I do most of what I have eaten, but I know that both contribute no less to the conservation of my mind and my body on that account.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Knowledge and experiences shape us, even if we don't remember them explicitly.
In this quote, Lichtenberg suggests that just as we may not remember every meal we've eaten, we also forget much of what we read. However, both play an essential role in nourishing and sustaining our minds and bodies, reinforcing the idea that the accumulation of knowledge and experiences, regardless of immediate retention, contributes significantly to our overall well-being and intellectual development.
Themes
KnowledgeMemoryEducationMindBodyExperience
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech on the importance of lifelong learning, you might say, 'As Georg C. Lichtenberg wisely stated, I forget most of what I read, yet it enriches my mind.'
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.
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 thoughts written on the walls of madhouses by their inmates might be worth publicizing.
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
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