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
Everyone is a genius at least once a year. The real geniuses simply have their bright ideas closer together.
Interpretation
Everyone has moments of brilliance; true geniuses have these moments more frequently.
This quote suggests that all individuals possess the potential for genius, with each person having a moment of innovative thought or creativity at least once a year. However, those who are considered true geniuses are distinguished by their ability to generate bright ideas more consistently, reflecting a deeper engagement or understanding in their respective fields.
In practice
In a motivational speech to inspire creativity in the workplace.
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?
But it is a blessed provision of nature that at times like these, as soon as a man's mercury has got down to a certain point there comes a revulsion, and he rallies. Hope springs up, and cheerfulness along with it, and then he is in good shape to do something for himself, if anything can be done.
During a Chess competition a Chessmaster should be a combination of a beast of prey and a monk
To a clear eye the smallest fact is a window through which the infinite may be seen.
He cumbers himself never about consequences, about interests; he gives an independent, genuine verdict. You must court him: he does not court you. But the man is, as it were, clapped into jail by his consciousness.
It's very liberating when you finally realize it's impossible to make everyone like you.
We must not only obtain Wisdom: we must enjoy her.
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