Gotthold Ephraim Lessing Quotes

The power to guess the unseen from the seen, to trace the implication of things, to judge the whole piece by the pattern, the condition of feeling life, in general, so completely that you are well on your way to knowing any particular corner of it-this cluster of gifts may almost be said to constitute experience, and they occur in country and in town, and in the most differing stages of education.

The power to guess the unseen from the seen, to trace the implications of things, to judge the whole piece by the pattern . . . this cluster of gifts may almost be said to constitute experience.

To see the world is to judge the judges.

When a man puts me a question, I judge of his intelligence.

'Come hither, my boy, tell me what thou seest there?' 'A fool tangled in a religious snare.'

Everyone has understood me in his own way. But I would have to understand myself first in order to judge - and so far, I haven't.

I used to be a partier, now I'm an alcoholic. It's all in who's judging you.

In New York I'd go to the movies three or four times a week. Here I've upped it to six or seven, mainly because I'm too lazy to do anything else. Fortunately, going to the movies seems to suddenly qualify as an intellectual accomplishment, on a par with reading a book or devoting time to serious thought. It's not that the movies have gotten any more strenuous, it's just that a lot of people are as lazy as I am, and together we've agreed to lower the bar.

To see is to forget the name of the thing one sees.

As for the outside world, the artist is confronted by what he sees; but what he sees is primarily what he looks at.

All our knowledge hast its origins in our perceptions … In nature there is no effect without a cause … Experience never errs; it is only your judgments that err by promising themselves effects such as are not caused by your experiments … Science is the observation of things possible, whether present or past; prescience is the knowledge of things which may come to pass.

We must not always judge of the generality of the opinion by the noise of the acclamation.

I've always believed, in my heart of hearts, that it would be a better show if, when I crossed over to the desk, the band kept playing for an hour and I danced in a cage.

Before you attempt to set things right, make sure you see things right.

How often do we do that, he wondered--look at someone and fail to see what's really there?

We look at the mountain to see the painting, then we look at the painting to see the mountain.

You're like a witness. You're the one who goes to the museum and looks at the paintings. I mean the paintings are there and you're in the museum too, near and far away at the same time. I'm a painting. Rocamadour is a painting. Etienne is a painting, this room is a painting. You think that you're in the room but you're not. You're looking at the room, you're not in the room.

We have ... dreamed so much and observed so little, that our imaginations have grown larger than the world we live in, and our judgments have dwindled down to a point.

It is therefore correct to say that the senses do not err — not because they always judge rightly, but because they do not judge at all.

It's a better view if you're standing up than if you're laying down.

My work is about your seeing. There is a rich tradition in painting of work about light, but it is not light -- it is the record of seeing. My material is light, and it is responsive to your seeing.

There are eyes, to be sure, that give no more admission into the man than blueberries.

You cannot judge any man beyond your knowledge of him, and how small is your knowledge.