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
Doubt must be no more than vigilance, otherwise it can become dangerous.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Doubt can be helpful when managed properly, but excessive doubt can lead to negative consequences.
This quote emphasizes the importance of maintaining a balance between doubt and vigilance. While a certain level of doubt is healthy and can prompt critical thinking, allowing it to overwhelm us can lead to destructive outcomes. The quote warns against the dangers of unchecked doubt, suggesting that it should be treated with caution and awareness.
Themes
DoubtVigilanceDangerousWisdomCritical Thinking
In practice
Example use cases
During a motivational speech on overcoming obstacles, one might quote this to caution against destructive self-doubt.
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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Knowledge kills action; action requires the veils of illusion.
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