Top 68 Quotes & Sayings by Gotthold Ephraim Lessing

For the will and not the gift makes the giver.

Think wrongly, if you please, but in all cases think for yourself.

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

He who doesn't lose his wits over certain things has no wits to lose.

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

Absolute truth belongs to Thee alone.

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

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!

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

A heretic is a man who sees with his own eyes.

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

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

They make glorious shipwreck who are lost in seeking worlds.

One can drink too much, but one never drinks enough.

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.

To look forward to pleasure is also a pleasure.

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.

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

Nothing under the sun is ever accidental.

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!

A heretic is a man who sees with his own eyes

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

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

The end-purpose of all art is enjoyment!

Joy makes us giddy, dizzy.

Nature meant woman to be her masterpiece.

The true vagrant is the only king above all comparison.

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

The search for truth is more precious than its possession.

Why should not every individual man have existed more than once upon this world? Why should I not come back as often as I am capable of acquiring fresh knowledge? Is this hypothesis so laughable merely because it is the oldest? Because the human understanding, before the sophistries of the schools had dissipated and debilitated it, lighted upon it at once?

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

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

Yesterday I lived, today I suffer, tomorrow I die; but I still think fondly, today and tomorrow, of yesterday.

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

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

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

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.

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

The true value of man is not determined by his possession, supposed or real, of Truth, but rather by his sincere exertion to get to the Truth. It is not possession of Truth by which he extends his powers and in which his ever-growing perfectability is to be found. Possession makes one passive, indolent and proud. If God were to hold all Truth concealed in his right hand, and in his left only the steady and diligent drive for Truth, albeit with the proviso that I would always and forever err in the process, and to offer me the choice, I would with all humility take the left hand.

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

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.

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

The real beggar is indeed the true and only king.

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.

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

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

Nature intended that woman should be her masterpiece.

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

It is medicine, not poison, I offer you.

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

Borrowing is not much better than begging.

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.

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

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

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.

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

The gift of prayer is not always at our command.

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.

The superstition in which we were brought up never loses its power over us, even after we understand it.