Science Quote by Georg C. Lichtenberg

Moral advice that sounds pious is often just social control in a nicer coat, and Lichtenberg knows it. “Never undertake anything for which you wouldn’t have the courage to ask the blessings of heaven” isn’t a demand for sainthood so much as a psychological trapdoor: it forces you to stage your own actions in the harshest possible spotlight. The key word is “courage.” He’s not asking whether heaven exists; he’s asking whether you can stand behind what you’re doing when you imagine an all-seeing witness, or even just an imagined audience with higher standards than your friends.

For an 18th-century scientist and satirist, that’s telling. Lichtenberg lived in a culture where religious language still carried public authority, but Enlightenment thinkers were busy relocating “judgment” from the church to the self. The quote borrows theology as a tool for ethics, not as doctrine. It’s a clever hack: if you can’t bring yourself to bless your own scheme out loud, you already know it’s compromised - by cruelty, vanity, greed, or cowardice.

The subtext is less “be good” than “don’t hide behind technicalities.” It anticipates modern forms of moral outsourcing: “I was just doing my job,” “it’s legal,” “everyone does it.” Lichtenberg offers a compact test that bypasses excuses. If your project requires secrecy, euphemism, or a tight circle of consent, it probably can’t survive the simple act of being named under the widest possible moral sky.