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
Delight at having understood a very abstract and obscure system leads most people to believe in the truth of what it demonstrates.
Interpretation
Understanding complex ideas can lead to a belief in their truth, regardless of their obscurity.
Georg C. Lichtenberg suggests that when people grasp complicated and abstract concepts, they often become enamored with the understanding itself, which can lead them to uncritically accept the ideas as true. This highlights the potential for cognitive bias where enthusiasm for comprehension may overshadow critical analysis of the actual validity of the concepts presented.
In practice
In a discussion on philosophy, one might quote this to illustrate how people can misinterpret complex theories.
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?
It is terrible to speak well and be wrong.
In the intricate paths of life when difficulties and hardships confront a man, and the darkness of difficulty and suffering becomes long, it is patience only that acts like a light for a Muslim, that keeps him safe from wandering here and there, and saves him from the muddy marsh of disappointment, desperation and frustration.
Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.
Commit yourself to deeper awareness. Be generous of spirit. Embrace every day as a new world. Let the timeless be in charge of time.
The proof that one truly believes is in action.
He who walks in the middle of the roads gets hit from both sides.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.