Georg C. Lichtenberg Quotes

I used to write things out beforehand. But sometimes it backfires.

Sometimes we have to do a thing in order to find out the reason for it. Sometimes our actions are questions, not answers.

All I can tell them is pick a good one and sock it. I get back to the dugout and they ask me what it was I hit and I tell them I don't know except it looked good.

If you ask me a question, don't tell me what the question is in advance, 'cause I'd rather not know.

I don't want to set the world up for surprises.

No action is without its side effects.

Consider this point. It is a main point of true wisdom. Whenever there is an execution of purpose, there must be an agent.

One event makes another: what we anticipate seldom occurs; what we least expected generally happens; and time can only prove which is most for our advantage

You just can't get surprised when you get surprised, because weird stuff just comes over the transom all the time, and it's not necessarily anything that you've planned for or anticipated.

I disagree with the idea that everything happens for a reason.

If I think I will get the ball, I go out. I can't stop halfway because the goal is empty and the player would have the opportunity to shoot. You make the reaction, and then, of course, you have to be sure to get the ball. But it's years of practice. You can't say from one day to the other, 'Now I will do it,' you know? You have to feel it.

There were so many of us who would have to live with things done and things left undone that day. Things that did not go right, things that seemed okay at the time because we could not see the future. If only we could see the endless string of consequences that result from our smallest actions. But we can't know better until knowing better is useless.

It seems to me further, that it is very odd that fate should leave so careful a trail, and spend so little time preparing the one that must follow it.

Thought is the organizing factor in man, intersected between the causal primary instincts and the resulting actions.

No acts are random or wasted.

You believe in a God who plays dice, I in complete law and order.

Most of the time-- 99 percent of the time-- you just don't know how and why the threads are looped together, and that's okay. Do a good thing and something bad happens. Do a bad thing and something good happens. Do nothing and everything explodes.

The wish precedes the event, the will accompanies it.

In the works of Nature, purpose, not accident, is the main thing.

For if many ill-conceived plans have succeeded through the still greater lack of judgment of an opponent, many more, apparently well laid, have on the contrary ended in disgrace. The confidence with which we form our schemes is never completely justified in their execution; speculation is carried on in safety, but, when it comes to action, fear causes failure.

Success is choosing to enter the arena of action, determined to give yourself to the cause that will better humanity and last for eternity.

For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. You never know what it’s going to look like on the other side, but you’ll see it eventually if you keep your eyes open.

Finally, after more than a year of unprecedented anticipation, the talking stops and the cricket begins.

What is being said is the effect of something that has happened; at the same time, what is being said is in itself something happening, which will, in turn, leave its effect.

It is only by following your deepest instinct that you can lead a rich life.