An entirely honest man, in the severe sense of the word, exists no more than an entirely dishonest knave: the best and the worst are only approximations of those qualities. Who are those that never contradict themselves? yet honesty never contradicts itself: Who are those that always contradict themselves? yet knavery is mere self-contradiction. Thus the knowledge of man determines not the things themselves, but their proportions, the quanโฃtum of congruities and incongruities.
Johann Kaspar LavaterHis calumny is not only the greatest benefit a rogue can confer on us, but the only service he will perform for nothing.
Johann Kaspar LavaterCertain trifling flaws sit as disgracefully on a character of elegance as a ragged button on a court dress.
Johann Kaspar Lavater