We’ve been talking about Lichtenberg’s accomplishments in
physics, but physics was only half of Lichtenberg’s life. Writing was the other
half.
For five years, he co-published the Göttingisches Magazin der Wissenschaften und Literatur (Göttingen magazine for science and literature), and for over twenty years he edited and wrote for the Göttinger Taschen-Calendar (pocket calendar), a popular scientific and literary almanac.
He became one of the leading commentators on the English painter and printmaker William Hogarth. And, at least since he was a student, he had kept a diary, which ultimately became the source of his fame.
His journals contained not just the usual events of a diarist’s life, but also page upon page of witty observations. He called them his Sudelbücher (scrap or waste books). The term came from the notebooks that merchants would use to make quick notes of their transactions before later entering them more carefully into a more formal ledger.
Lichtenberg kept his Sudelbücher, labeled A through L, for himself; he never intended that they be published, at least not while he was alive. He called them, according to one of his biographers, Jürgen Teichmann, nothing more than “remarks which were thrown away.” But they were not thrown away. They were published after Lichtenberg’s death, and he achieved fame as one of Europe’s greatest aphorists. They are still in print today, and his sayings live on today in any major collection of aphorisms and quotations.
For five years, he co-published the Göttingisches Magazin der Wissenschaften und Literatur (Göttingen magazine for science and literature), and for over twenty years he edited and wrote for the Göttinger Taschen-Calendar (pocket calendar), a popular scientific and literary almanac.
He became one of the leading commentators on the English painter and printmaker William Hogarth. And, at least since he was a student, he had kept a diary, which ultimately became the source of his fame.
His journals contained not just the usual events of a diarist’s life, but also page upon page of witty observations. He called them his Sudelbücher (scrap or waste books). The term came from the notebooks that merchants would use to make quick notes of their transactions before later entering them more carefully into a more formal ledger.
Lichtenberg kept his Sudelbücher, labeled A through L, for himself; he never intended that they be published, at least not while he was alive. He called them, according to one of his biographers, Jürgen Teichmann, nothing more than “remarks which were thrown away.” But they were not thrown away. They were published after Lichtenberg’s death, and he achieved fame as one of Europe’s greatest aphorists. They are still in print today, and his sayings live on today in any major collection of aphorisms and quotations.
And in keeping with the spirit of polymathy, he even had a saying on polymathy. He wrote:
"That which creates the polymath is often
not a knowledge of many things but a happy relationship between his abilities
and his taste by virtue of which the latter always approves of what the former
produces."
The Waste Books,
Notebook F.130
And he was somewhat of a skeptic:
"Nothing can contribute more to peace of soul than the lack
of any opinion whatsoever."
The Waste Books,
Notebook E.11.
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