For me the greatest beauty always lies in the greatest clarity.
— Gotthold Ephraim Lessing
The most controversy Gotthold Ephraim Lessing quotes that are glad to read
They make glorious shipwreck who are lost in seeking worlds.
Let us be lazy in everything, except in loving and drinking, except in being lazy.
Did the Almighty, holding in his right hand truth, and in his left hand search after truth, deign to proffer me the one I might prefer, in all humility, but without hesitation, I should request search after truth.
The search for truth is more precious than its possession.
He who doesn't lose his wits over certain things has no wits to lose.
Yesterday I lived, today I suffer, tomorrow I die;
but I still think fondly, today and tomorrow, of yesterday.
Pleasures, riches, honor and joy are sure to have care, disgrace, adversity and affliction in their train. There is no pleasure without pain, no joy without sorrow. O the folly of expecting lasting felicity in a vale of tears, or a paradise in a ruined world.
Nothing under the sun is accidental, least of all that of which the intention is so clearly evident.
The true vagrant is the only king above all comparison.
The real beggar is indeed the true and only king.
As the stag which the huntsman has hit flies through bush and brake, over stock and stone, thereby exhausting his strength but not expelling the deadly bullet from his body; so does experience show that they who have troubled consciences run from place to place, but carry with them wherever they go their dangerous wounds.
Borrowing is not much better than begging.
Joy makes us giddy, dizzy.
It is not children only that one feeds with fairy tales.
For the will and not the gift makes the giver.
Let the devil catch you but by a single hair, and you are his forever.
Suspicion follows close on mistrust.
If some things don't make you lose your sense of reason, then you have none to lose.
I know not whether there exists such a thing as a coin stamped with a pair of pinions; but I wish this were the device which monarchs put upon their dollars and ducats, to show that riches make to themselves wings, and fly away.
Absolute truth belongs to Thee alone.
How can such deep-imprinted images sleep in us at times, till a word, a sound, awake them?
A heretic is a man who sees with his own eyes.
A blush is the sign which Nature hangs out to show where chastity and honor dwell.
Would that we could at once paint with the eyes! In the long way from the eye through the arm to the pencil, how much is lost!
It is not the truth that a man possesses, or believes that he possesses, but the earnest effort which he puts forward to reach the truth, which constitutes the worth of a man.
Pure truth is for God alone.
With a clear sky, a bright sun, and a gentle breeze, you will have friends in plenty; but let fortune frown, and the firmament be overcast, and then your friends will prove like the strings of the lute, of which you will tighten ten before you find one that will bear the stretch and keep the pitch.
Who cannot resolve upon a moment's notice To live his own life, he forever lives A slave to others.
The more we see the more we must be able to imagine, and the more we imagine, the more we must think we see.
I, who ne'erWent for myself a begging, go a borrowing,And that for others.
Borrowing's much the sameAs begging; just as lending upon usuryIs much the same as thieving.
The searcher's eye Not seldom finds more than he wished to find.
Nature intended that woman should be her masterpiece.
But how many moments are already past! Ah! who thinks of those that are past?
One can drink too much, but one never drinks enough.
When the heart dares to speak, it needs no preparation.
The gift of prayer is not always at our command.
What can the Creator see with greater pleasure than a happy creature?
Nature meant woman to be her masterpiece.
What education is to the individual man, revelation is to the human race.
Education is revelation coming to the individual man, and revelation is education that has come, and is still coming to the human race.
The most deadly fruit is borne by the hatred which one grafts on an extinguished friendship.
We moderns do not believe in demigods, but our smallest hero we expect to feel and act as a demigod.
To borrow scarce is better than to beg;
As lending, lending upon interest, Scarce better is than stealing.
A man who does not lose his reason over certain things has none to lose.
To look forward to pleasure is also a pleasure.
Nothing under the sun is ever accidental.
It is not I who die, when I die, but my sin and misery.
My God, grant that my bounty may be a clear and transparent river, flowing from pure charity, and uncontaminated by self-love, ambition, or interest. Thanks are due not to me, but Thee, from whom all I possess is derived. And what are the paltry gifts for which my neighbor forgets to thank me, compared with the immense blessings for which I have so often forgotten to be grateful to Thee!
The most agreeable of all companions is a simple, frank man, without any high pretensions to an oppressive greatness; one who loves life, and understands the use of it; obliging alike at all hours; above all, of a golden temper and steadfast as an anchor. For such an one we gladly exchange the greatest genius, the most brilliant wit, the profoundest thinker.
