Johann Kaspar Lavater Quotes

His calumny is not only the greatest benefit a rogue can confer on us, but the only service he will perform for nothing.

Strange that cowards cannot see that their greatest safety lies in dauntless courage.

The conscience is more wise than science.

What knowledge is there of which man is capable that is not founded on the exterior,--the relation that exists between visible and invisible, the perceptible and the imperceptible?

Borrowed wit is the poorest wit.

There are no friends more inseparable than pride and hardness of heart, humility and love, falsehood and impudence.

Depend on no man, on no friend but him who can depend on himself. He only who acts conscientiously toward himself, will act so toward others.

Certain trifling flaws sit as disgracefully on a character of elegance as a ragged button on a court dress.

He who can conceal his joys, is greater than he who can hide his griefs

It is possible that a wise and good man may be prevailed on to game; but it is impossi∣ble that a professed gamester should be a wise and good man.

All affectation is the vain and ridiculous attempt of poverty to appear rich

Women are proverbially credulous.

True love, like the eye, can bear no flaw.

The craftiest trickery are too short and ragged a cloak to cover a bad heart.

As you treat your body, so your house, your domestics, your enemies, your friends - Dress is a table of your contents.

True worth is as inevitably discovered by the facial expression, as its opposite is sure to be clearly represented there. The human face is nature's tablet, the truth is certainly written thereon.

What do I owe to my times, to my country, to my neighbors, to my friends? Such are the questions which a virtuous man ought often to ask himself.

He whom common, gross, or stale objects allure, and when obtained, content, is a vulgar being, incapable of greatness in thought or action.

He who, when called upon to speak a disagreeable truth, tells it boldly and has done is both bolder and milder than he who nibbles in a low voice and never ceases nibbling.

Every man has his devilish minutes.

Be certain that he who has betrayed thee once will betray thee again.

As a man's salutations, so is the total of his character; in nothing do we lay ourselves so open as in our manner of meeting and salutation.

Copiousness and simplicity, variety and unity, constitute real greatness of character.

Let the degree of egotism be the measure of confidence.

A sneer is often the sign of heartless malignity.

Softness of smile indicates softness of character.

Who partakes in another's joys is a more humane character than he who partakes in his griefs.

He whose pride oppresses the humble may perhaps be humbled, but will never be humble.

Conscience is the sentinel of virtue.

He who seeks to imbitter innocent pleasure has a cancer in his heart.

Words are the wings of actions.

The mingled incentives which lead to action are often too subtle and lie too deep for us to analyze.

Avoid him who from mere curiosity asks three questions running about a thing that cannot interest Him.

He who prorogues the honesty of today till to-morrow will probably prorogue his to-morrows to eternity.

Have you ever seen a pedant with a warm heart?

Thinkers are scarce as gold; but he whose thoughts embrace all his subject, and who pursues it uninterruptedly and fearless of consequences, is a diamond of enormous size.

The proverbial wisdom of the populace in the street, on the roads, and in the markets instructs the ear of him who studies man more fully than a thousand rules ostentatiously displayed.

Who makes quick use of the moment is a genius of prudence.

He who comes from the kitchen, smells of its smoke; and he who adheres to a sect, has something of its cant; the college air pursues the student; and dry inhumanity him who herds with literary pedants.

He who freely praises what he means to purchase, and he who enumerates the faults of what he means to sell, may set up a partnership with honesty.

Be not the fourth friend of him who had three before and lost them.

He who, silent, loves to be with us - he who loves us in our silence - has touched one of the keys that ravish hearts.

Malice is poisoned by her own venom.

Him, who incessantly laughs in the street, you may commonly hear grumbling in his closet.

A fop of fashion is the mercer's friend, the tailor's fool, and his own foe.

He, who cannot forgive a trespass of malice to his enemy, has never yet tasted the most sublime enjoyment of love.

The freer you feel yourself in the presence of another, the more free is he...

The generous person is always just, and the just who is always generous may, unannounced, approach the throne of heaven.