One of his most famous students was Alexander von Humboldt, who thanked his mentor Lichtenberg with these words: “I do not merely regard the sum of positive insights that I was able to gather from what you told me – what I value even more is the general direction that my train of thoughts took under your guidance. Truth in itself is precious, but even more precious is the skill to find it.”

According to Barnett in Innovation: The Basis of Cultural Change : “No innovation springs full - blown out of nothing: it must have antecedents ” (1953, p. 7).