Gotthold Ephraim Lessing Quotes

For me the greatest beauty always lies in the greatest clarity.

Let us be lazy in everything, except in loving and drinking, except in being lazy.

They make glorious shipwreck who are lost in seeking worlds.

To look forward to pleasure is also a pleasure.

The search for truth is more precious than its possession.

A single grateful thought toward heaven is the most perfect prayer.

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.

The more we see the more we must be able to imagine, and the more we imagine, the more we must think we see.

The most deadly fruit is borne by the hatred which one grafts on an extinguished friendship

Nothing under the sun is accidental, least of all that of which the intention is so clearly evident.

If some things don't make you lose your sense of reason, then you have none to lose.

A heretic is a man who sees with his own eyes

What can the Creator see with greater pleasure than a happy creature?

The true vagrant is the only king above all comparison.

The real beggar is indeed the true and only king.

The superstition in which we grew up, Though we may recognize it, does not lose Its power over us.-Not all are free Who make mock of their chains.

When the heart dares to speak, it needs no preparation.

Joy makes us giddy, dizzy.

Nothing under the sun is ever accidental.

For the will and not the gift makes the giver.

It is not children only that one feeds with fairy tales.

A man who does not lose his reason over certain things has none to lose.

Ein einziger dankbarer Gedanke gen Himmel ist das vollkommenste Gebet. One single grateful thought raised to heaven is the most perfect prayer.

The end-purpose of all art is enjoyment!

Suspicion follows close on mistrust.

Absolute truth belongs to Thee alone.

How can such deep-imprinted images sleep in us at times, till a word, a sound, awake them?

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

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!

Let the devil catch you but by a single hair, and you are his forever.

It is not I who die, when I die, but my sin and misery.

A blush is the sign which Nature hangs out to show where chastity and honor dwell.

The gift of prayer is not always at our command.

The lion is ashamed, it's true, when he hunts with the fox.

Nature meant woman to be her masterpiece.

If the advice of a fool for once happens to be good, it requires a wise man to carry it out.

We moderns do not believe in demigods, but our smallest hero we expect to feel and act as a demigod.

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.

Nature intended that woman should be her masterpiece.

Resist as much as thou wilt; heaven's ways are heaven's ways.

What education is to the individual, revelation is to the whole human race.

Pure truth is for God alone.

To borrow scarce is better than to beg; As lending, lending upon interest, Scarce better is than stealing.

Well was it said by a man of sagacity that dancing was a sort of privileged and reputable folly, and that the best way to be convinced of this was to close the ears and judge of it by the eyes alone.

It's easier to swoon in pious dreams Than do good actions.

But how many moments are already past! Ah! who thinks of those that are past?

It is medicine, not poison, I offer you.

Who cannot resolve upon a moment's notice To live his own life, he forever lives A slave to others.

The searcher's eye Not seldom finds more than he wished to find.