Ein Buch ist ein Spiegel, aus dem kein Apostel herausgucken kann, wenn ein Affe hineinguckt
Georg Christoph Lichtenberg 1742-1799
- One of many insightful observations from Lichtenberg's Waste Books
- Loosely translated (and updated to the 21st century):
- "A book (or a website, this one specifically) is a mirror: if an ape looks in, no apostle looks out"
- This site is not intended to replace the study of books, the perusal of journals, the experience that comes from looking at slides or the training of residency and fellowship
- Rather, it is designed as an aid to be used during the act of signing out cases
- You will notice, or may already have, that there are no figures associated with this site
- This absence requires the authors to be as precise and complete as possible and the user to have an underlying fund of knowledge
- Once again, Lichtenberg: "We ought really to call 'a book' only that which contains something new: the rest are merely a means of learning quickly what has already been done in this or that field"
- This is not a book
Please send comments, suggestions and error notices to me at the address below
Robert V Rouse MD
For more on Georg Christoph Lichtenberg, sit down with a real book: The Waste Books; translated and with an introduction by R. J. Hollingdale. New York Review Books
