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Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
(1 Jul 1742 - 24 Feb 1799)
German physicist and writer most widely known for his satire and aphorisms, but as a scientist, Lichtenberg did research in a wide variety of fields, including geophysics, volcanology, meteorology, chemistry, astronomy, mathematics, but especially physics. He discovered the basic physical process later used in xerographic copiers.
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Georg Christoph Lichtenberg Quotes on Science (5 quotes)
>> Click for 73 Science Quotes by Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
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>> Click for 73 Science Quotes by Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
>> Click for Georg Christoph Lichtenberg Quotes on | Belief | Discovery | Genius | Man | Nature | Theory | Thinking | Truth | World |
Above all things expand the frontiers of science: without this the rest counts for nothing.
— Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
Aphorism 262 in Notebook J (1789-1793), as translated by R. J. Hollingdale in Aphorisms (1990). Reprinted as The Waste Books (2000), 181.
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 Christoph Lichtenberg
Aphorism 23 in Notebook C (1772-1773), as translated by R.J. Hollingdale in Aphorisms (1990). Reprinted as The Waste Books (2000), 35.
It is the geniuses who, as pioneers, create the highways, and the cultivated who level and beautify them. Highway improvement would be a good thing in the sciences, so that we could get from one of them to another more easily.
— Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
Aphorism 39 in Notebook D (1773-1775), as translated by R.J. Hollingdale in Aphorisms (1990). Reprinted as The Waste Books (2000), 49.
The most heated defenders of a science, who cannot endure the slightest sneer at it, are commonly those who have not made very much progress in it and are secretly aware of this defect.
— Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
Aphorism 8 in Notebook F, as translated by R.J. Hollingdale in Aphorisms (1990), 82.
There is no greater impediment to progress in the sciences than the desire to see it take place too quickly.
— Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
Aphorism 72 in Notebook K, as translated by R.J. Hollingdale in Aphorisms (1990).
See also:
- 1 Jul - short biography, births, deaths and events on date of Lichtenberg's birth.
In science it often happens that scientists say, 'You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken,' and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion.
(1987) -- 
