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Aphorisms
La literatura, escribió Lichtenberg, suele ser más inteligente que su autor. Así, estos escritos que no pertenecen a ningún género conocido y cuyo contenido es variadísimo han conquistado a una legión de lectores fervorosos entre los que se cuentan Kant, Thomas Mann, Freud, Nietzsche, Goethe y Schopenhauer, por mencionar sólo unos cuantos.
208 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1799
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About the author
Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
517 books103 followersGeorg Christoph Lichtenberg was a German scientist, satirist and Anglophile. As a scientist, he was the first to hold a professorship explicitly dedicated to experimental physics in Germany. Today, he is remembered for his notebooks published posthumously, which he himself called "waste books", using the English bookkeeping term, and for his discovery of the strange treelike patterns now called Lichtenberg figures.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 89 reviews
November 14, 2013
Like Montaigne, Lichtenberg should remain by your bedside within arms reach, for easy access when approaching sleep or waking up, and most especially for those hours when insomnia encroaches. Like Montaigne, when the lover beside you feels a million miles away, Lichtenberg will be close at hand, with some striking summation, some well-crafted phrase, some illuminating observation, some truth never before spoken, some architecturally precise aphorism that brings comfort and health to the anxious and ill mind. He will be your friend when the entirety of humanity seems like savage aliens. He will let you see them as savage aliens and still wish to know and understand them. Like Montaigne, temporal and cultural distances evaporate when you open The Waste Books, and you realize there is a lovely thing-approaching-universality that is common to uneasy beings such as ourselves attempting to think and live simultaneously.
February 6, 2022
Publicat la Editura Univers în 1970, volumul a fost reeditat în 2001 la Editura Paralela 45. Traducerea aforismelor îi aparține criticului și istoricului literar Ion Negoițescu. Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (1742 - 1799) a fost matematician la Universitatea din Göttingen. A legat prietenii cu Schiller și Kant.
Voi transcrie doar un fragment de imens folos îndeosebi cititorilor (ca mine) care nu au întotdeauna puterea să se oprească din citit și să mediteze cu luare aminte la ceea ce au citit. Îndrăznesc să afirm că non-lectura (de acest fel) este mai importantă decît lectura. Partea cea mai plăcută a acestui obicei desuet (mă refer, desigur, la citit) se petrece exact atunci cînd ridici ochii din pagină și reflectezi la ceea ce ai găsit important în carte. Fără reflecție, mintea noastră rămîne doar un sac de citate culese la întîmplare și uitate cu maximă viteză. Iată:
„Avînd în vedere că citim de la o vîrstă prea fragedă și prea mult, adunînd prin lecturi un material bogat, pe care însă nu-l asimilăm cum s-ar cuveni și înlocuim prin memorie simțirea și gustul, avem nevoie de multe ori de o filosofie profundă spre a reda simțirii starea originară, de nevinovăție, spre a afla drumul spre ieșire din molozul lucrurilor străine, o filosofie prin care începi să simți tu însuți, să vorbești tu însuți și, aproape că aș spune, și să trăiești [măcar] o dată tu însuți. Părerile cele mai comune și ceea ce fiecare socotește statornicit o dată pentru totdeauna, merită de multe ori o cercetare atentă” (p.158, trimiterea e la ediția din 1970).
P. S. Aș mai cita un pasaj: „Întrucît la încheierea păcii se cîntă Te Deum laudamus, nimic n-ar fi mai firesc ca la începutul războiului să se cînte Te Diabolum laudamus? N-ar fi oare vrednic de un poet să scrie un Te Diabolum și de un muzician să-l compună?” (p.182).
Voi transcrie doar un fragment de imens folos îndeosebi cititorilor (ca mine) care nu au întotdeauna puterea să se oprească din citit și să mediteze cu luare aminte la ceea ce au citit. Îndrăznesc să afirm că non-lectura (de acest fel) este mai importantă decît lectura. Partea cea mai plăcută a acestui obicei desuet (mă refer, desigur, la citit) se petrece exact atunci cînd ridici ochii din pagină și reflectezi la ceea ce ai găsit important în carte. Fără reflecție, mintea noastră rămîne doar un sac de citate culese la întîmplare și uitate cu maximă viteză. Iată:
„Avînd în vedere că citim de la o vîrstă prea fragedă și prea mult, adunînd prin lecturi un material bogat, pe care însă nu-l asimilăm cum s-ar cuveni și înlocuim prin memorie simțirea și gustul, avem nevoie de multe ori de o filosofie profundă spre a reda simțirii starea originară, de nevinovăție, spre a afla drumul spre ieșire din molozul lucrurilor străine, o filosofie prin care începi să simți tu însuți, să vorbești tu însuți și, aproape că aș spune, și să trăiești [măcar] o dată tu însuți. Părerile cele mai comune și ceea ce fiecare socotește statornicit o dată pentru totdeauna, merită de multe ori o cercetare atentă” (p.158, trimiterea e la ediția din 1970).
P. S. Aș mai cita un pasaj: „Întrucît la încheierea păcii se cîntă Te Deum laudamus, nimic n-ar fi mai firesc ca la începutul războiului să se cînte Te Diabolum laudamus? N-ar fi oare vrednic de un poet să scrie un Te Diabolum și de un muzician să-l compună?” (p.182).
January 7, 2023
Lihtenbergove "Sudelbücher” nisu zbirke isključivo aforizama nego svakojakih zapisa i opažanja, ali su aforizmi izašli na glas. I to sa pravom. Oni su kompaktni spoj dva jebiga: JE BI GA (onog koji se viče od očaja) i jebiga (onog koje se izgovara iz pomirenosti). Struja malim slovima ispisanog jebiga svojim pomirljivim osmehom uvek ujednači i smiri nepodnošljivost celosvestke gluposti iskazanog onim JE BI GA iz očaja. Stoga Lihtenberg je prozreo i prezreo sve, ali nikad ne prodire do tragičnog. Nekako ga sve to zabavlja. On je blago ovog sveta sa kojim može da se meri samo Montenj i, možda, Vitgenštajn.
Neću prepisati omiljene aforizme, ali želim da podelim Lihtenbergov zapis sna nekoliko dana pred smrt.
Neću prepisati omiljene aforizme, ali želim da podelim Lihtenbergov zapis sna nekoliko dana pred smrt.
"Tokom jednog putovanja, svratio sam da nešto pojedem u krčmi kraj puta, tačnije baraci u kojoj su se sakupljali kockari. Preko puta mene sedeo je mladić koji je dobro izgledao, ali je delovao pomalo bleskasto. Ne obraćajući pažnju na ljude, ni na one koji su sedeli, ni na one koji su stajali, jeo je svoju čorbu i to tako, što je svaki drugi ili treći put kad bi je zahvatio, sadržaj kašike bacao u vis i dočekao ga ponovo, a zatim mirno posrkao.
Ono po čemu se meni ovaj san čini posebnim jeste to što sam učinio uobičajenu primedbu: da takve stvari ne mogu biti izmišljene, da ih treba videti (hoću da kažem da nikada nijedan romansijer nije imao sličnu ideju), a ipak ja sam to smislio u trenutku.
Za stolom, za kojim su se igrale karte, sedela je i štrikala jedna visoka, mršava žena. Pitao sam je šta može da se osvoji. Rekla je: ništa! A kad sam je pitao šta može da se izgubi, opet je odgovor bio: ništa ! Ta igra činila mi se veoma važnom. "
July 8, 2018
Fun. For lots of reasons. Among them:
1) written in dense bite-size chunks, concise, subtle, and fertile
2) aphoristic style prefigures Nietzsche
3) insight into an intellect’s distillations at an interesting historical period: (1742-1799)
4) L calls French Revolution experimental politics.
5) L gets to read and comment on Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason when it came out (1781).
6) Senges.
1) written in dense bite-size chunks, concise, subtle, and fertile
2) aphoristic style prefigures Nietzsche
3) insight into an intellect’s distillations at an interesting historical period: (1742-1799)
4) L calls French Revolution experimental politics.
5) L gets to read and comment on Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason when it came out (1781).
6) Senges.
February 23, 2014
“Ideas too are a life and a world.” (p. 91)
The Waste Books is a collection of 1,085 aphorisms and other short writings by a curious German hunchback who had a crater on the moon named after him. He was primarily a scientist, but also a satirist, and this is a book he never intended to publish, being a compilation of notebooks of his observations, thoughts and reflections.
“I would give something to know for precisely whom the deeds were really done of which it is publicly stated they were done for the Fatherland.” (p.208)
“A golden rule: We must judge men, not by their opinions, but by what these opinions make of them.” (p.170)
Schopenhauer called Lichtenberg someone who enjoyed thinking “for his own instruction,” and in one longer entry, Lichtenberg says we shouldn’t go to bed without having learned something that day, and he doesn't mean a vocabulary word! Sometimes Lichtenberg’s inclination toward reflection and a summing-up is expressed with bite and wit.
“Because he always neglected his own duties he had time to observe which of his fellow citizens neglected theirs and to report the fact to the authorities.” (p.114)
Lichtenberg has some pet topics, including morality (“Before we blame we should first see whether we cannot excuse.” p.194),
society (“There are countries where it is not uncommon for officers who have served well in a war to be reduced in rank when peace arrives. Would it not be a good thing if in certain departments of government the officials, or some of them, were reduced in rank whenever war breaks out?” p.209),
books (“Nowadays we already have books about books and descriptions of descriptions.” p. 49),
education (“Diminution of one’s needs is something that certainly ought to be inculcated in youth. ‘The fewer needs one has the happier one is’ is an old but much-neglected truth.” p.223),
and human nature (“The most perfect ape cannot draw an ape; only man can do that; but likewise, only man regards the ability to do this as a sign of superiority.” p. 152).
Some of the aphorisms are also hard to categorize. Here are a few of my favorites:
“The celebrated painter Gainsborough got as much pleasure from seeing violins as from hearing them.” (p.222)
“We do not think good metaphors are anything very important, but I think a good metaphor is something even the police should keep an eye on.” (p. 78)
“There are people who believe everything is sane and sensible that is done with a solemn face.” (p. 72)
“He who says he hates every kind of flattery, and says it in earnest, certainly does not yet know every kind of flattery.” (p.194)
I suggest approaching this book as something to gnaw on in brief sittings, rather than to sit down and attempt to “read it as book.” Would make a great coffeetable book for the thinking wo/man.
The Waste Books is a collection of 1,085 aphorisms and other short writings by a curious German hunchback who had a crater on the moon named after him. He was primarily a scientist, but also a satirist, and this is a book he never intended to publish, being a compilation of notebooks of his observations, thoughts and reflections.
“I would give something to know for precisely whom the deeds were really done of which it is publicly stated they were done for the Fatherland.” (p.208)
“A golden rule: We must judge men, not by their opinions, but by what these opinions make of them.” (p.170)
Schopenhauer called Lichtenberg someone who enjoyed thinking “for his own instruction,” and in one longer entry, Lichtenberg says we shouldn’t go to bed without having learned something that day, and he doesn't mean a vocabulary word! Sometimes Lichtenberg’s inclination toward reflection and a summing-up is expressed with bite and wit.
“Because he always neglected his own duties he had time to observe which of his fellow citizens neglected theirs and to report the fact to the authorities.” (p.114)
Lichtenberg has some pet topics, including morality (“Before we blame we should first see whether we cannot excuse.” p.194),
society (“There are countries where it is not uncommon for officers who have served well in a war to be reduced in rank when peace arrives. Would it not be a good thing if in certain departments of government the officials, or some of them, were reduced in rank whenever war breaks out?” p.209),
books (“Nowadays we already have books about books and descriptions of descriptions.” p. 49),
education (“Diminution of one’s needs is something that certainly ought to be inculcated in youth. ‘The fewer needs one has the happier one is’ is an old but much-neglected truth.” p.223),
and human nature (“The most perfect ape cannot draw an ape; only man can do that; but likewise, only man regards the ability to do this as a sign of superiority.” p. 152).
Some of the aphorisms are also hard to categorize. Here are a few of my favorites:
“The celebrated painter Gainsborough got as much pleasure from seeing violins as from hearing them.” (p.222)
“We do not think good metaphors are anything very important, but I think a good metaphor is something even the police should keep an eye on.” (p. 78)
“There are people who believe everything is sane and sensible that is done with a solemn face.” (p. 72)
“He who says he hates every kind of flattery, and says it in earnest, certainly does not yet know every kind of flattery.” (p.194)
I suggest approaching this book as something to gnaw on in brief sittings, rather than to sit down and attempt to “read it as book.” Would make a great coffeetable book for the thinking wo/man.
Read
April 8, 2023Video review: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5PZPh....
November 18, 2017
So many wonderful thoughts. Perceptive, amusing and sometimes baffling. Here are two of my favourites:
"Herr Camper related that when a missionary painted the flames of Hell to a congregation of Greenlanders in a truly vivid fashion and described at length the heat they gave out, all the Greenlanders began to feel a strong desire to go to Hell."
"Although I know, of course, that very many reviewers do not read the books they review in so exemplary a way, I nonetheless cannot see the harm it could do if one were to read a book one is intending to review."
"Herr Camper related that when a missionary painted the flames of Hell to a congregation of Greenlanders in a truly vivid fashion and described at length the heat they gave out, all the Greenlanders began to feel a strong desire to go to Hell."
"Although I know, of course, that very many reviewers do not read the books they review in so exemplary a way, I nonetheless cannot see the harm it could do if one were to read a book one is intending to review."
January 18, 2017
I read this as a companion to the Pierre Senges work, Fragments of Lichtenberg (review here). As such, I read it less to revel in Lichtenberg’s aphoristic wit, and more as a sort of balance in opposition to Senges’ invention. And yet, it’s difficult to read this and not be taken up by the intellect of Lichtenberg – his thoughts are broad and widespread, and yet each entry in his notebooks – at least those here, which I’ll comment on momentarily – is economical in phrasing; succinct, witty, and direct; (brevity is the soul of wit and all that) but most contain a depth of thought most writers would spend pages on. But, that’s important – the lovely thing about aphorisms is that they can be brief and witty, but – due to the structure of the thing itself – does not need to support itself in the way that more robust philosophy would – aphorisms are not interested in the exhaustive inquiry and proof that diligent philosophy requires, and instead are more interested in clever turns of phrase: they feel right, without the burdensome need to be proved to be right. That said, Lichtenberg would appear to have a retort to dense, exhaustive philosophy (It requires no especially great talent to write in such a way that another will be very hard put to it to understand what you have written); so maybe there is something to be said for the appearance of truth…
The text as presented here is significantly culled from the original notebooks –Lichtenberg’s Waste Books contained somewhere in the neighborhood of 8000 entries (though I’m not clear if that includes the entries now considered “lost” from the later notebooks or not) while this collection contains roughly 1000 entries – so, about an eighth of the original text. The one thing that I found lacking from the introduction (which is quite good) was an explanation as to why the translator chose to present the entries that he did, and why he left out the others. It would be burdensome to expect all 8000 or so to be included, but the editing process itself feels like an important part of the collection, and dearly missed.
The entries themselves are interesting – I would not recommend sitting down and reading through all 1000 in a single sitting (as I did - okay, actually I did sleep, but it was damn near one sitting) as it almost certainly diminishes one’s enjoyment of the work – aphorisms really should be sampled and savored, not binged upon to the point of nausea. That said, it’s evident that Lichtenberg was a man of great intellect, and most of these small entries/musings have something of worth to say – whether that be poetic, philosophical, of humorous (or some combination of the three) varies by entry, but almost all have some aspect of those qualities.
This is a work to read over time, and not just once - there is a compacted brilliance of insight here that requires contemplation and re-reads; a work that should be kept close, in a specially curated revisit/reference library.
[This makes a pleasant side piece to the referenced Senges work – though, for me, if you only can chose one or the other, go with the Senges every time.
But, really, read both.]
The text as presented here is significantly culled from the original notebooks –Lichtenberg’s Waste Books contained somewhere in the neighborhood of 8000 entries (though I’m not clear if that includes the entries now considered “lost” from the later notebooks or not) while this collection contains roughly 1000 entries – so, about an eighth of the original text. The one thing that I found lacking from the introduction (which is quite good) was an explanation as to why the translator chose to present the entries that he did, and why he left out the others. It would be burdensome to expect all 8000 or so to be included, but the editing process itself feels like an important part of the collection, and dearly missed.
The entries themselves are interesting – I would not recommend sitting down and reading through all 1000 in a single sitting (as I did - okay, actually I did sleep, but it was damn near one sitting) as it almost certainly diminishes one’s enjoyment of the work – aphorisms really should be sampled and savored, not binged upon to the point of nausea. That said, it’s evident that Lichtenberg was a man of great intellect, and most of these small entries/musings have something of worth to say – whether that be poetic, philosophical, of humorous (or some combination of the three) varies by entry, but almost all have some aspect of those qualities.
This is a work to read over time, and not just once - there is a compacted brilliance of insight here that requires contemplation and re-reads; a work that should be kept close, in a specially curated revisit/reference library.
[This makes a pleasant side piece to the referenced Senges work – though, for me, if you only can chose one or the other, go with the Senges every time.
But, really, read both.]
November 1, 2018
Lichtenberg no era un hombre común, y eso lo demuestra en este libro de aforismos donde no sólo nos avienta las verdades a la cara sino que después de ello, nos acaricia con la sutilidad de la compensación retórica. Nos habla sobre los comportamientos sociales en general, sobre la pose y el oficio del escritor. Él no aspiraba a serlo y aún así logró captar la atención de muchos. Y como ya lo escribió él mismo "más vale darle el tiro de gracia al escritor, que perdonarle la vida en una reseña".
January 21, 2018
3 üzerinden 3,5.
Kitap hakkında kurabileceğim tek cümle şudur;bazı fikirleri,düşünceleri gerçekten akılda kalıcıydı ama bazıları ise sadece saçmalıktı.
Sizi altını çizdiğim cümleleriyle başbaşa bırakayım.(Gerçi hepsini değil bir kaçını yazıcam,olsun.)
"Bir savaş yirmi yıl sürdüyse,pekala yüzyıl da sürebilir.Çünkü böylece savaş bir durum haline gelir:Polemokrasi.Barışı tatmış insanlar ölüp gitmiştir."
"İnsanın yeni bir şey görebilmesi için yeni bir şey yapması lazım."
"Bir çok girişim meyvelerini kendimizde görmek istediğimiz için başarısızlığa uğrar."
"Kınamadan önce sınamalı:Affetmek mümkün müdür?"
"Hep kendini biledi durdu sonunda keskinleşmeden köreldi."
Kitap hakkında kurabileceğim tek cümle şudur;bazı fikirleri,düşünceleri gerçekten akılda kalıcıydı ama bazıları ise sadece saçmalıktı.
Sizi altını çizdiğim cümleleriyle başbaşa bırakayım.(Gerçi hepsini değil bir kaçını yazıcam,olsun.)
"Bir savaş yirmi yıl sürdüyse,pekala yüzyıl da sürebilir.Çünkü böylece savaş bir durum haline gelir:Polemokrasi.Barışı tatmış insanlar ölüp gitmiştir."
"İnsanın yeni bir şey görebilmesi için yeni bir şey yapması lazım."
"Bir çok girişim meyvelerini kendimizde görmek istediğimiz için başarısızlığa uğrar."
"Kınamadan önce sınamalı:Affetmek mümkün müdür?"
"Hep kendini biledi durdu sonunda keskinleşmeden köreldi."
May 31, 2014
WOWZERS
A great book of aphorisms; one taken from the book, itself, sums up my feelings towards it.
"There is no mistaking a good book when one meets it. It is like falling in love."
I fell in love with this book
A great book of aphorisms; one taken from the book, itself, sums up my feelings towards it.
"There is no mistaking a good book when one meets it. It is like falling in love."
I fell in love with this book
January 1, 2022
"Merchants have a waste-book... in which they enter from day to day everything they have bought and sold, all mixed up together in disorder; from this it is transferred to the journal, in which everything is arranged more systematically; and finally it arrives in the ledger, in double entry after the Italian manner of book-keeping... This deserves to be imitated by the scholar. First a book in which I inscribe everything just as I see it or as my thoughts prompt me, then this can be transferred to another where the materials are more ordered and segregated, and the ledger can then contain a connected construction and the elucidation of the subject that flows from it expressed in an orderly fashion."
This is essentially what Lichtenberg's waste books are. They are a collection of philosophical musings, aphorisms, witticisms, observations and even insults ("His own figure mocks him."). There is much food for thought and lots of wisdom scattered throughout its pages; one can see why people like Einstein, Tolstoy, Wittgenstein and Nietzsche admired these notebooks. What they reveal most of all is a free-minded and rational individual using philosophy in its purest sense. That is, the daily joy of philosophising on the nature of reality and existence. This is why Lichtenberg's The Waste Books is my favourite philosophy text. It doesn't subscribe to a single philosophical framework, but rather, it is the manifestation of the everyday act of philosophising.
Sometimes Lichtenberg didn't fully realise the potentiality of things, as this example demonstrates that he couldn't have predicted the advent of free jazz: "It is easy to construct a landscape out of a mass of disorderly lines, but disorderly sounds cannot be made into music." Not all of the aphorisms are serious either; sometimes he reaches hilarious conclusions. But they never fail to demonstrate someone constantly seeking truth and improving themselves by reaching a greater quotidian understanding. I'll finish this review with some of his thoughts. Please give them a read and help spread Lichtenberg's brilliance so that he is more widely known and appreciated.
"I have very often reflected on what it is that really distinguishes the great genius from the common crowd. Here are a few observations that I have made. The common individual always conforms to the prevailing opinion and the prevailing fashion; he regards the state in which everything now exists as the only possible one and passively accepts it all. It does not occur to him that everything, from the shape of the furniture up to the subtlest hypothesis, is decided by the great council of which he is a member... to the great genius it always occurs to ask: could this too not be false? He never gives his vote without reflecting." (p. 36)
"Many people know everything they know in the way we know the solution of a riddle after we have read it or been told it, and that is the worst kind of knowledge and the kind least to be cultivated; we ought rather to cultivate that kind of knowledge which enables us to discover for ourselves... that which others have to read or be told of in order to know it." (p. 58)
"There is a great difference between still believing something and again believing it. Still to believe that the moon influences the plants betrays stupidity and superstition, but again to believe it displays philosophy and reflection." (p. 63)
"A man can commend something bad and condemn something good, but Man cannot." (pp. 74-75)
"Thinking for oneself is often recommended only for the purpose of studying how to distinguish between truth and the errors other people make." (p. 88)
"Is it not strange that men (sic) are so keen to fight for religion and so unseen to live according to its precepts?" (p. 226)
"With most people disbelief in a thing is founded on a blind belief in some other thing." (p. 225)
"When someone makes badly what we expected to be well made, we say: I could do as well as that myself. There are few expressions that betray so much modesty." (p. 205)
"Before we blame we should first see whether we cannot excuse." (p. 194)
etc. etc.
This is essentially what Lichtenberg's waste books are. They are a collection of philosophical musings, aphorisms, witticisms, observations and even insults ("His own figure mocks him."). There is much food for thought and lots of wisdom scattered throughout its pages; one can see why people like Einstein, Tolstoy, Wittgenstein and Nietzsche admired these notebooks. What they reveal most of all is a free-minded and rational individual using philosophy in its purest sense. That is, the daily joy of philosophising on the nature of reality and existence. This is why Lichtenberg's The Waste Books is my favourite philosophy text. It doesn't subscribe to a single philosophical framework, but rather, it is the manifestation of the everyday act of philosophising.
Sometimes Lichtenberg didn't fully realise the potentiality of things, as this example demonstrates that he couldn't have predicted the advent of free jazz: "It is easy to construct a landscape out of a mass of disorderly lines, but disorderly sounds cannot be made into music." Not all of the aphorisms are serious either; sometimes he reaches hilarious conclusions. But they never fail to demonstrate someone constantly seeking truth and improving themselves by reaching a greater quotidian understanding. I'll finish this review with some of his thoughts. Please give them a read and help spread Lichtenberg's brilliance so that he is more widely known and appreciated.
"I have very often reflected on what it is that really distinguishes the great genius from the common crowd. Here are a few observations that I have made. The common individual always conforms to the prevailing opinion and the prevailing fashion; he regards the state in which everything now exists as the only possible one and passively accepts it all. It does not occur to him that everything, from the shape of the furniture up to the subtlest hypothesis, is decided by the great council of which he is a member... to the great genius it always occurs to ask: could this too not be false? He never gives his vote without reflecting." (p. 36)
"Many people know everything they know in the way we know the solution of a riddle after we have read it or been told it, and that is the worst kind of knowledge and the kind least to be cultivated; we ought rather to cultivate that kind of knowledge which enables us to discover for ourselves... that which others have to read or be told of in order to know it." (p. 58)
"There is a great difference between still believing something and again believing it. Still to believe that the moon influences the plants betrays stupidity and superstition, but again to believe it displays philosophy and reflection." (p. 63)
"A man can commend something bad and condemn something good, but Man cannot." (pp. 74-75)
"Thinking for oneself is often recommended only for the purpose of studying how to distinguish between truth and the errors other people make." (p. 88)
"Is it not strange that men (sic) are so keen to fight for religion and so unseen to live according to its precepts?" (p. 226)
"With most people disbelief in a thing is founded on a blind belief in some other thing." (p. 225)
"When someone makes badly what we expected to be well made, we say: I could do as well as that myself. There are few expressions that betray so much modesty." (p. 205)
"Before we blame we should first see whether we cannot excuse." (p. 194)
etc. etc.
September 25, 2017
In their form and in the riddle they present, Lichtenberg’s Waste Books may perhaps be compared to Pascal’s Pensées. They invite, at any rate, similar questions: Are these aphoristic fragments and observations finished pieces as they stand or mere notes toward a work never completed? Is there an inner logic in their arrangement? And do they present us with the honest, considered (if sometimes contradictory) thoughts of their author or are they acts of ventriloquism, utterances of unwritten characters, illustrations of competing philosophical positions?
Both men died before their major works saw the printed page. One might also point out that both Pascal and Lichtenberg made names for themselves, in their own day, in the so-called “STEM” fields: Pascal as a mathematician and an inventor, Lichtenberg as a physicist. This, however, is probably where their likenesses end. Pascal is focused, persistent, and devout. Lichtenberg is, by comparison, all over the place, and as one progresses through the Waste Books Lichtenberg becomes more and more enamored of the spirit of his age – the era of the Enlightenment and the French Revolution – and so more and more a heathen. He indulges an anti-Catholic bigotry at the end that seems pathologically obsessive.
That said, there’s a great deal of worthy and fascinating stuff in the Waste Books. It’s the kind of book you set by the bed and read from a bit at a time before sleep, with a pencil in your hand to mark up the pages. The better passages will have you re-reading them in the morning.
A selection:
Nothing can contribute more to peace of soul than the lack of any opinion whatever.
It makes a great difference by what path we come to a knowledge of certain things.
To do the opposite of something is also a form of imitation.
Most of the expressions we use are metaphorical: they contain the philosophy of our ancestors.
When a book and a head collide and a hollow sound is heard, must it always have come from the book?
It requires no especially great talent to write in such a way that another will be very hard put to understand what you have written.
The actual possession of something sometimes affords us no greater pleasure than the mere idea that we possess it.
If people should ever start to do only what is necessary millions would die of hunger.
Something moving from one end of a grain of sand to the other with the speed of lightning or of light will seem to us to be at rest.
Food probably has a very great influence on the condition of men. Wine exercises a more visible influence, food does it more slowly but perhaps just as surely. Who knows if a well-prepared soup was not responsible for the pneumatic pump or a poor one for a war.
Nature creates, not genera and species, but individua, and our short-sightedness has to seek our similarities so as to be able to retain in mind many things at the same time. These conceptions become more and more inaccurate the larger the families we invent for ourselves are.
Both men died before their major works saw the printed page. One might also point out that both Pascal and Lichtenberg made names for themselves, in their own day, in the so-called “STEM” fields: Pascal as a mathematician and an inventor, Lichtenberg as a physicist. This, however, is probably where their likenesses end. Pascal is focused, persistent, and devout. Lichtenberg is, by comparison, all over the place, and as one progresses through the Waste Books Lichtenberg becomes more and more enamored of the spirit of his age – the era of the Enlightenment and the French Revolution – and so more and more a heathen. He indulges an anti-Catholic bigotry at the end that seems pathologically obsessive.
That said, there’s a great deal of worthy and fascinating stuff in the Waste Books. It’s the kind of book you set by the bed and read from a bit at a time before sleep, with a pencil in your hand to mark up the pages. The better passages will have you re-reading them in the morning.
A selection:
Nothing can contribute more to peace of soul than the lack of any opinion whatever.
It makes a great difference by what path we come to a knowledge of certain things.
To do the opposite of something is also a form of imitation.
Most of the expressions we use are metaphorical: they contain the philosophy of our ancestors.
When a book and a head collide and a hollow sound is heard, must it always have come from the book?
It requires no especially great talent to write in such a way that another will be very hard put to understand what you have written.
The actual possession of something sometimes affords us no greater pleasure than the mere idea that we possess it.
If people should ever start to do only what is necessary millions would die of hunger.
Something moving from one end of a grain of sand to the other with the speed of lightning or of light will seem to us to be at rest.
Food probably has a very great influence on the condition of men. Wine exercises a more visible influence, food does it more slowly but perhaps just as surely. Who knows if a well-prepared soup was not responsible for the pneumatic pump or a poor one for a war.
Nature creates, not genera and species, but individua, and our short-sightedness has to seek our similarities so as to be able to retain in mind many things at the same time. These conceptions become more and more inaccurate the larger the families we invent for ourselves are.
December 11, 2017
There are definitely a few passages of great insight drawn with incredible economy. The majority of the pages are filled with shallow insights or thin jokes. Aphorisms can be a fine method of conveying a thought and emotion, but each needs to be perfectly timed and meticulously crafted. The majority of these, I suspect, were jotted down quickly.
April 20, 2012
GOLD.
January 21, 2018
Some of these are startlingly brilliant. For example he compares reviews to childhood illnesses, and notes that some writers attempt to "inoculate" their books with self-criticism so as to fortify them against bad reviews. Isn't that such a great insight? Just as inoculations expose the patient to a small amount of the sickness in order to strengthen them, authors who include in their book small acknowledgements of flaws seek to strengthen them against bad reviews. What a clever little simile, and it's one of many!
Read
February 10, 2013Through the wonderful Gert Hoffmann's Lichtenberg and the Little Flower Girl I came to Georg Christoph Lichtenberg's The Waste Books, which, alas! after more than a year of judiciously timed reading, I have finished. The selection of observations by this 18th-century scientist and professor was made and nimbly translated by the late R.J. Hollingdale, who also supplied admirably few notes to identify people mentioned or other specifics.
The title is Lichtenberg's own, drawn from the books which, in English business practice, transactions are entered as they occur during the day, before being transferred to permanent accounts. They're not diaries, which Lichtenberg also kept, but ideas as they occur. Not everyone enjoys this sort of noting down of the thoughts: I offer a few below, from the dozens I marked as I read, as a sample of the pleasures to be found.
The man was such an intellectual he was of almost no use. p. 55
Ideas too are a life and a world. p. 91
Presupposing we do not regard ourselves as an object of observation like a prepared specimen but always as the sum of what we now are, we are lost if we acquire too much time for reflecting on ourselves. We become aware of so much that is dismal and wretched that at the sight of it all desire to organize it or hold it together departs from us. p. 157
The Socratic method intensified -- I mean torture. p.204
The title is Lichtenberg's own, drawn from the books which, in English business practice, transactions are entered as they occur during the day, before being transferred to permanent accounts. They're not diaries, which Lichtenberg also kept, but ideas as they occur. Not everyone enjoys this sort of noting down of the thoughts: I offer a few below, from the dozens I marked as I read, as a sample of the pleasures to be found.
The man was such an intellectual he was of almost no use. p. 55
Ideas too are a life and a world. p. 91
Presupposing we do not regard ourselves as an object of observation like a prepared specimen but always as the sum of what we now are, we are lost if we acquire too much time for reflecting on ourselves. We become aware of so much that is dismal and wretched that at the sight of it all desire to organize it or hold it together departs from us. p. 157
The Socratic method intensified -- I mean torture. p.204
April 22, 2015
Rather than blathering on about a book of aphorism's merits (or lack thereof), I've shared some of my favorite excerpts from this book here:
https://newenglandstates.wordpress.co...
and here:
https://newenglandstates.wordpress.co...
Reading these entries will confirm you as a possible student of Lichtenberg or not!
https://newenglandstates.wordpress.co...
and here:
https://newenglandstates.wordpress.co...
Reading these entries will confirm you as a possible student of Lichtenberg or not!
July 1, 2008
The ruminations of an 18th-century hunchbacked experimental physicist. He explores an incredible range of issues, including the connection between book reviews and erections. Highly Recommended.
December 17, 2008
Son los comentarios que un duende tiene que hacerle a la vida. Hay sabiduría y profundidad, buen humor, gracia y, al fin, burlas contra las maneras necias de los hombres.
November 7, 2020
I finished _The Waste Books_ by Lichtenberg. I really like this book. It’s a collection of paragraphs about the world, impressions of someone who sees themselves as part of the Enlightenment, but who feels society bears down on him and others in a way that’s repressive and against the better angels of our nature. His witty questions and answers are like a sieve for approaching the most important questions we face as humans. He prefigures a lot of more modern thought, where we can see traces of things to come, like embodied cognition and pragmatism. But it’s not only philosophical; there are jokes, insults, exasperated sighs, small cries of pain. And for anyone interested in writing, the book is a goldmine of the vicissitudes of that profession: too many books exist, written by people for whom the book is more of a means of personal extension, part of the business of being someone in society, rather than the accumulated evidence of work towards an end honestly and genuinely approached. Most of what he says about his present of the eighteenth century still applies to our present. It’s also a book that can be read in tiny little chunks, like a bathroom reader. I read a little bit of it every morning after waking up. It was like reading a witty letter from a friend trying to bolster me for the day.
August 22, 2022
I really enjoyed this. It's format feels so casual and allows you to pick it apart piece by piece. It's filled with gems on topics like art, philosophy, science, human creativity, nature, and political thought. It was said to have inspired writers like Tolstoy, Einstein, Breton, Nietzsche, and Wittgenstein, and the tone of the writing definitely speaks to that. The format of each notebook section allows you to just flip to a random page and discover something new to chew on.
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April 4, 2022Aphorisms from everyone's favorite Enlightenment German.
The most perfect ape cannot draw an ape; only man can do that; but, likewise, only man regards the ability to do this as a sign of superiority.
The most perfect ape cannot draw an ape; only man can do that; but, likewise, only man regards the ability to do this as a sign of superiority.
February 18, 2023
Tack Niklas!!!
May 15, 2009
I like the aphorism. He has some good ones, and some good notes.
“If mankind suddenly became virtuous, many thousands would die of hunger.”
“Hour-glasses remind us, not only of how times flies, but at the same time of the dust into which we shall one day decay."
“Yes I believe I run after the strange because I do not know the beautiful; no it is because you do not know the beautiful that I seek the strange.”
And even some funny.
“Why are young windows in mourning so beautiful? (Look into it.)”
He mentions this Tacitus guy (Never heard of him until this book). As in I read Tacitus once, or as Tacitus noted. This has its charms. As in you speak of Tacitus, of course, him. I began to chuckle at each time he mentioned Tacitus, thinking about if he was out in the modern world, the odd looks he would get. As the other day I was being asked my thoughts on things, some art being showcased, and after a bathroom break I came back and the two people at lunch were saying, “Walter, are you ok? Are you really seeing people walk everywhere?” “Huh? I asked. “You kept saying…Pedestrian. Pedestrian. Pedestrian. No one is walking around. That we can see, at least. ” I was speaking of the ideas, and yet I guess even the definitions are lost now. How pedestrian. Nothing is pedestrian about Lichtenberg,
“If mankind suddenly became virtuous, many thousands would die of hunger.”
“Hour-glasses remind us, not only of how times flies, but at the same time of the dust into which we shall one day decay."
“Yes I believe I run after the strange because I do not know the beautiful; no it is because you do not know the beautiful that I seek the strange.”
And even some funny.
“Why are young windows in mourning so beautiful? (Look into it.)”
He mentions this Tacitus guy (Never heard of him until this book). As in I read Tacitus once, or as Tacitus noted. This has its charms. As in you speak of Tacitus, of course, him. I began to chuckle at each time he mentioned Tacitus, thinking about if he was out in the modern world, the odd looks he would get. As the other day I was being asked my thoughts on things, some art being showcased, and after a bathroom break I came back and the two people at lunch were saying, “Walter, are you ok? Are you really seeing people walk everywhere?” “Huh? I asked. “You kept saying…Pedestrian. Pedestrian. Pedestrian. No one is walking around. That we can see, at least. ” I was speaking of the ideas, and yet I guess even the definitions are lost now. How pedestrian. Nothing is pedestrian about Lichtenberg,
April 18, 2015
I first heard of Lichtenberg in Clive James’ Cultural Amnesia, which might well be my most costly purchase of all since it gave me so many unfamiliar names to go through. The Waste Books are just that, a collection of what were called ‘waste books’ (simply notebooks in modern terms) which Lichtenberg kept over the course of his life. They consist almost entirely of aphorisms, which rarely last longer than a few lines. As such this isn’t a cohesive reading experience as there’s no pattern or progression to it but it’s one which rewards being read in bite sized chunks and with the odd line here and there left to roll around your mind. It’s one to keep by your bedside or any other places you might read and contemplate rather than attempt to plough through in a sitting or two. It’s also strikingly modern in presentation, Lichtenberg’s admirable gift of concision being one more than two hundred years ahead of his time – he’d have been an absolute natural on Twitter. By turns witty, deep and sharply observed, this is a book to make the mind fizz.
June 30, 2016
'Pearls of wisdom'; random musings from the 1700s; miscellaneous insights. Light, easy reading. A welcome relief from denser works on one's shelf.
The format is diary-like; with just a few succinct paragraph-entries per page; sometimes of just a few lines each. The man was urbane, well-spoken; observant and thoughtful. He has some gems to offer. It's an uplifting book; sagacious; pondering.
Compare a man like this --an educated man, a polite man...probably well-dressed at all times in a suit, vest and tie--to some contemporary, t-shirt wearing, mohawked, pierced, tattoo'd slob you might find yourself sitting next to on a city bus one morning. We've come a long way downward into a latrine. Why is the world today comprised of 99.999% tasteless, sleazy, worthless nimrods chattering about sports teams and superhero movies?
Lichtenberg strived all his life to think about what he saw around him. A work like his inevitably brings to mind such unfavorable comparisons....
The format is diary-like; with just a few succinct paragraph-entries per page; sometimes of just a few lines each. The man was urbane, well-spoken; observant and thoughtful. He has some gems to offer. It's an uplifting book; sagacious; pondering.
Compare a man like this --an educated man, a polite man...probably well-dressed at all times in a suit, vest and tie--to some contemporary, t-shirt wearing, mohawked, pierced, tattoo'd slob you might find yourself sitting next to on a city bus one morning. We've come a long way downward into a latrine. Why is the world today comprised of 99.999% tasteless, sleazy, worthless nimrods chattering about sports teams and superhero movies?
Lichtenberg strived all his life to think about what he saw around him. A work like his inevitably brings to mind such unfavorable comparisons....
April 21, 2020
Selbstreflektiv, analytisch und pointiert sind diese auf den Punkt gebrachten Gedanken. Viele der Aphorismen Lichtenbergs beschäftigen sich mit dem Selberdenken, eigenem Erschaffen und dem Nachdenken. Das Nachahmen, Auswendiglernen und bloße Ansammeln, auch von Wissen, ist ihm nicht genug. Dieses Büchlein hat mir einen gehörigen Stoß versetzt und gezeigt, dass erst in Ruhephasen eigenes Denken überhaupt möglich wird.
June 28, 2017
A collection of humor wit and intelligence from a scientist, short phrases or parragraphs that tell a lot; perfect for wainting lines and desperate readers in search of refresing and reflexive reads. Oh, and the introduction by Juan Villoro in the FCE edition is priceless, tons of info in the form of a very dinamic biography gives you a context where Lichtenberg's life develops.
June 17, 2012
A book of sparkling, witty aphorisms and observations. Lichtenberg is unlike any other writer of his time, or ours.
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