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
He who says he hates every kind of flattery, and says it in earnest, certainly does not yet know every kind of flattery.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote suggests that those who claim to despise flattery may not fully understand the various ways it can be expressed or perceived.
Georg C. Lichtenberg implies that individuals who vehemently reject flattery might be lacking in experience or awareness of the subtleties involved in flattery. Their strong stance against it could indicate a naivety about the complexities of human interaction and the different forms that praise and compliment can take, revealing that, to truly recognize flattery, one must have encountered it in all its forms.
Themes
FlatteryHatredPerceptionWisdomHuman Interaction
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about the nature of compliments, this quote can illustrate the complexity of human emotions.
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.
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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.
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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?
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