Jul 1, 1742 - Feb 24, 1799
German scientist, satirist and Anglophile.
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The most dangerous untruths are truths slightly distorted.
Every man has his moral backside which he refrains from showing unless he has to and keeps covered as long as possible with the trousers of decorum.
Be wary of passing the judgment: obscure. To find something obscure poses no difficult, elephants and poodles find many things obscure.
A book is a mirror: if an ape looks into it an apostle is hardly likely to look out.
The pleasures of the imagination are as it were only drawings and models which are played with by poor people who cannot afford the real thing.
Man loves company - even if it is only that of a small burning candle.
Men still have to be governed by deception.
One must judge men not by their opinions, but by what their opinions have made of them.
We accumulate our opinions at an age when our understanding is at its weakest.
Doubt must be no more than vigilance, otherwise it can become dangerous.
Just as the performance of the vilest and most wicked deeds requires spirit and talent, so even the greatest demand a certain insensitivity which under other circumstances we would call stupidity.
If all else fails, the character of a man can be recognized by nothing so surely as by a jest which he takes badly.
Prejudices are so to speak the mechanical instincts of men: through their prejudices they do without any effort many things they would find too difficult to think through to the point of resolving to do them.
We have no words for speaking of wisdom to the stupid. He who understands the wise is wise already.
To be content with life or to live merrily, rather all that is required is that we bestow on all things only a fleeting, superficial glance; the more thoughtful we become the more earnest we grow.
Nothing is more conducive to peace of mind than not having any opinion at all.
Sickness is mankind's greatest defect.
Much can be inferred about a man from his mistress: in her one beholds his weaknesses and his dreams.
Everyone is a genius at least once a year. The real geniuses simply have their bright ideas closer together.
I cannot say whether things will get better if we change; what I can say is they must change if they are to get better.
Perhaps in time the so-called Dark Ages will be thought of as including our own.
With most people unbelief in one thing is founded upon blind belief in another.
If people should ever start to do only what is necessary millions would die of hunger.
A person reveals his character by nothing so clearly as the joke he resents.
Once we know our weaknesses they cease to do us any harm.
He who is enamored of himself will at least have the advantage of being inconvenienced by few rivals.
If moderation is a fault, then indifference is a crime.
Virtue by premeditation isn't worth much.
The most successful tempters and thus the most dangerous are the deluded deluders.
