Georg C. Lichtenberg Quotes

A nation to be great ought to be compressed in its increment by nations more civilized than itself.

A good nation I will make live.This the nation above has said.They have given me the power to make over.

It is a hard and difficult thing to do to create a nation

The major challenge facing us is to elevate our national life to the highest level of civilization and prosperity.

What can we expect from nations still less advanced in civilization than the [Ancient] Greeks?

A country that does not have stable institutions and a clear constitution cannot be successful.

The future of our nation is dependent on the future of our families.

Religion itself cannot but be dynamic which is why "return" is an incorrect term. A return to the forms of religion which perhaps existed a couple of centuries ago is absolutely impossible. On the contrary, in order to combat modern materialistic mores, as religion must, to fight nihilism and egotism, religion must also develop, must be flexible in its forms, and it must have a correlation with the cultural forms of the epoch.

A man's hope measures his civilization. The attainability of the hope measures, or may measure, the civilization of his nation and time.

Woman's success in lifting men out of their way of life nearly resembling that of the beasts who merely hunted and fished for food, who found shelter where they could in jungles, in trees, and caves was a civilizing triumph.

There is a physical, not moral, impossibility of supplying the wants of the intellect in the state of civilisation at which we have arrived.

Religion will not regain its old power until it can face change in the same spirit as does science.

A long while ago an eager group of reformers wrote to me asking if I could suggest anything that would improve the morals of the American people. I replied that the trouble with the American people in general was not lack of morals but lack of brains.

I have seen people wanting to devote their time & energy to nation building. All they need is an opportunity. 'MyGov' is that opportunity!

A nation may be ever so civilized and yet lack wisdom.

The end and goal of any society as it addresses the problem of education is to raise the ability, the initiative and the cultural level, and with all these the survival level of that society.

The richness and variety, and indeed the advance, of our culture depend upon the continuation of this conflict [between conservatives and radicals], which is deeply rooted in human nature.

If you see that some aspect of your society is bad, and you want to improve it, there is only one way to do so: you have to improve people. And in order to improve people, you begin with only ONE thing: you can become better yourself.

One form of religion perpetually gives way to another; if religion did not change it would be dead. ... Each time the new ideas appear they are seen at first as a deadly foe threatening to make religion perish from the earth; but in the end there is a deeper insight and a better life with ancient follies and prejudices gone.

When people come to play music as they do to play bridge, civilization will have taken the longest stride forward since the beginning of time.

India's coming into her own will mean every nation doing likewise.

You have noticed that the human being is a curiosity. In times past he has had (and worn out and flung away) hundreds and hundreds of religions; today he has hundreds and hundreds of religions, and launches not fewer than three new ones every year. I could enlarge on that number and still be within the facts.

The more Adams thought about the future of his country, the more convinced he became that it rested on education. Before any great things are accomplished, he wrote to a correspondent, a memorable change must be made in the system of education and knowledge must become so general as to raise the lower ranks of society nearer to the higher. The education of a nation instead of being confined to a few schools and universities for the instruction of the few, must become the national care and expense for the formation of the many.

No country can reach a high stage of civilization without a leisure class.

No nation ever rises higher than its women.