Johann Kaspar Lavater Quotes & Sayings

Have I done aught of value to my fellow-men? Then have I done much for myself. — Johann Kaspar Lavater

True philosophy is that which renders us to ourselves, and all others who surround us, better, and at the same time more content, more patient, more calm and more ready for all decent and pure enjoyment. — Johann Kaspar Lavater

Too much gravity argues a shallow mind. — Johann Kaspar Lavater

Close thine ear against him that shall open his mouth secretly against another. If thou receivest not his words, they fly back and wound the reporter. If thou dost receive them, they fly forward and wound the receiver. — Johann Kaspar Lavater

Superstition always inspires littleness, religion grandeur of mind; the superstitious raises beings inferior to himself to deities. — Johann Kaspar Lavater

Who recollects distinctly his past adventures, knows his destiny to come. — Johann Kaspar Lavater

He has oratory who ravishes his hearers while he forgets himself. — Johann Kaspar Lavater

The man who loves with his whole heart truth will love still more he who suffers for truth. — Johann Kaspar Lavater

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 to those qualities. Who are those that never contradict themselves? yet honesty never contradicts itself. Who are they that always contradict themselves? yet knavery is mere self-contradiction. Thus the knowledge of man determines not the things themselves, but their proportions, the quantum of congruities and incongruities. — Johann Kaspar Lavater

A gift
its kind, its value and appearance; the silence or the pomp that attends it; the style in which it reaches you
may decide the dignity or vulgarity of the giver. — Johann Kaspar Lavater

The affectation of sanctity is a blotch on the face of piety. — Johann Kaspar Lavater

The more uniform a man's voice, step, manner of conversation, handwriting
the more quiet, uniform, settled, his actions, his character. — Johann Kaspar Lavater

You may depend upon it that he is a good man whose intimate friends are all good, and whose enemies are decidedly bad. — Johann Kaspar Lavater

Beware of biting jests; the more truth they carry with them, the greater wounds they give, the greater smarts they cause, and the greater scars they leave behind them. — Johann Kaspar Lavater

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. — Johann Kaspar Lavater

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. — Johann Kaspar Lavater

If you wish to appear agreeable in society, you must consent to be taught many things which you know already. — Johann Kaspar Lavater

Who has witnessed one free and unconstrained act of yours, has witnessed all. — Johann Kaspar Lavater

He who seldom speaks, and with one calm well-timed word can strike dumb the loquacious, is a genius or a hero. — Johann Kaspar Lavater

Where consequence ceases, there folly, restlessness and misery begin. — Johann Kaspar Lavater

There is no mortal truly wise and restless at once; wisdom is the repose of minds. — Johann Kaspar Lavater

Whatever obscurities may involve religious tenets, humility and love constitute the essence of true religion; the humble is formed to adore, the loving to associate with eternal love. — Johann Kaspar Lavater

Who will sacrifice nothing, and enjoy all, is a fool. — Johann Kaspar Lavater

Trust him little who praise all, him less who censures all and him least who is indifferent about all. — Johann Kaspar Lavater

Kiss the hand of him who can renounce what he has publicly taught, when convicted of his error; and who, with heartfelt joy, embraces the truth, though with the sacrifice of favorite opinions. — Johann Kaspar Lavater

What is the elevation of the soul? A prompt, delicate, certain feeling for all that is beautiful, all that is grand; a quick resolution to do the greatest good by the smallest means; a great benevolence joined to a great strength and great humility. — Johann Kaspar Lavater

The acquisition of will, for one thing exclusively, presupposes entire acquaintance with many others. — Johann Kaspar Lavater

He can feel no little wants who is in pursuit of grandeur. — Johann Kaspar Lavater

Not every one who has the gift of speech understands the value of silence. — Johann Kaspar Lavater

Avoid connecting yourself with characters whose good and bad sides are unmixed and have not fermented together; they resemble vials of vinegar and oil; or palletts set with colors; they are either excellent at home and insufferable abroad, or intolerable within doors and excellent in public; they are unfit for friendship, merely because their stamina, their ingredients of character are too single, too much apart; let them be finely ground up with each other, and they are incomparable. — Johann Kaspar Lavater

The humblest star twinkles most in the darkest night. — Johann Kaspar Lavater

Stubbornness is the strength of the weak. — Johann Kaspar Lavater

Have you ever seen a pedant with a warm heart? — Johann Kaspar Lavater

A single spark of occasion discharges the child of passions into a thousand crackers of desire. — Johann Kaspar Lavater

Who gives is positive; who receives is negative; still there remains an immense class of mere passives. — Johann Kaspar Lavater

Loudness is impotence. — Johann Kaspar Lavater

There is a manner of forgiveness so divine that you are ready to embrace the offender for having called it forth. — Johann Kaspar Lavater

Injustice arises either from precipitation, or indolence, or from a mixture of both. - The rapid and slow are seldom just; the unjust wait either not at all, or wait too long. — Johann Kaspar Lavater

Trust him with none of thy individualities who is, or pretends to be, two things at once. — Johann Kaspar Lavater

Who, under pressing temptations to lie, adheres to truth, nor to the profane betrays aught of a sacred trust, is near the summit of wisdom and virtue. — Johann Kaspar Lavater

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

The countenance is more eloquent than the tongue. — Johann Kaspar Lavater

He also has energy who cannot be deprived of it. — Johann Kaspar Lavater

The less you can enjoy, the poorer, the scantier yourself,
the more you can enjoy, the richer, the more vigorous. — Johann Kaspar Lavater

It is a poor wit who lives by borrowing the words, decisions, mien, inventions and actions of others. — Johann Kaspar Lavater

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

Let the degree of egotism be the measure of confidence. — Johann Kaspar Lavater

A beautiful smile is to the female countenance what the sunbeam is to the landscape; it embellishes an inferior face and redeems an ugly one. — Johann Kaspar Lavater

Words are the wings of actions. — Johann Kaspar Lavater

He who can at all times sacrifice pleasure to duty approaches sublimity. — Johann Kaspar Lavater

The jealous are possessed by a mad devil and a dull spirit at the same time. — Johann Kaspar Lavater

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

Whenever a man undergoes a considerable change, in consequence of being observed by others, whenever he assumes another gait, another language, than what he had before he thought himself observed, be advised to guard yourself against him. — Johann Kaspar Lavater

Do not believe that a book is good, if in reading it thou dost not become more contented with thy existence, if it does not rouse up in thee most generous feelings. — Johann Kaspar Lavater

Who values gold above all, considers all else as trifling. — Johann Kaspar Lavater

A great passion has no partner. — Johann Kaspar Lavater

Neatness begets order; but from order to taste there is the same difference as from taste to genius, or from love to friendship. — Johann Kaspar Lavater

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. — Johann Kaspar Lavater

You may tell a man thou art a fiend, but not your nose wants blowing; to him alone who can bear a thing of that kind, you may tell all. — Johann Kaspar Lavater

Wisdom is the repose of the mind. — Johann Kaspar Lavater

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

How few our real wants, and how vast our imaginary ones! — Johann Kaspar Lavater

Where pride begins, love ceases. — Johann Kaspar Lavater

Intuition is the clear conception of the whole at once. — Johann Kaspar Lavater

He who has no taste for order, will be often wrong in his judgment, and seldom considerate or conscientious in his actions. — Johann Kaspar Lavater

The true friend of truth and good loves them under all forms, but he loves them most under the most simple form. — Johann Kaspar Lavater

Obstinacy is the strength of the weak. Firmness founded upon principle, upon the truth and right, order and law, duty and generosity, is the obstinacy of sages. — Johann Kaspar Lavater

The cruelty of the effeminate is more dreadful than that or the hardy. — Johann Kaspar Lavater

Take here the grand secret; if not of pleasing all, yet of displeasing none, and court mediocrity, avoid originality, and sacrifice to fashion. — Johann Kaspar Lavater

All finery is a sign of littleness. — Johann Kaspar Lavater

Man without religion is a diseased creature, who would persuade himself he is well and needs not a physician; but woman without religion is raging and monstrous. — Johann Kaspar Lavater

Vanity and rudeness are seldom seen together. — Johann Kaspar Lavater

A sneer is often the sign of heartless malignity. — Johann Kaspar Lavater

Be certain that he who has betrayed thee once will betray thee again. — Johann Kaspar Lavater

He submits to be seen through a microscope, who suffers himself to be caught in a fit of passion. — Johann Kaspar Lavater

God protects those he loves from worthless reading. — Johann Kaspar Lavater

You can depend on no man, on no friend, but him who can depend on himself. — Johann Kaspar Lavater

All affectation is the vain and ridiculous attempt of poverty to appear rich — Johann Kaspar Lavater

Who, in the midst of just provocation to anger, instantly finds the fit word which settles all around him in silence is more than wise or just; he is, were he a beggar, of more than royal blood, he is of celestial descent. — Johann Kaspar Lavater

The manner of giving shows the character of the giver, more than the gift itself. — Johann Kaspar Lavater

Desire is the uneasiness a man finds in himself upon the absence of anything whose present enjoyment carries the idea of delight with it. — Johann Kaspar Lavater

He who attempts to make others believe in means which he himself despises is a puffer; he who makes use of more means than he knows to be necessary is a quack; and he who ascribes to those means a greater efficacy than his own experience warrants is an impostor. — Johann Kaspar Lavater

It is one of my favorite thoughts that God manifests Himself to men in all the wise, good, humble, generous, great, and magnanimous men. — Johann Kaspar Lavater

She neglects her heart who too closely studies her glass. — Johann Kaspar Lavater

Three things characterize man: person, fate, merit
the harmony of these constitutes real grandeur. — Johann Kaspar Lavater

He who always prefaces his tale with laughter, is poised between impertinence and folly. — Johann Kaspar Lavater

Avoid the eye that discovers with rapidity the bad, and is slow to see the good. — Johann Kaspar Lavater

The wrath that on conviction subsides into mildness, is the wrath of a generous mind. — Johann Kaspar Lavater

True love, like the eye, can bear no flaw. — Johann Kaspar Lavater

If you see one cold and vehement at the same time, set him down for a fanatic. — Johann Kaspar Lavater

She whom smiles and tears make equally lovely may command all hearts. — Johann Kaspar Lavater

Wishes run over in loquacious impotence, will presses on with laconic energy. — Johann Kaspar Lavater

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. — Johann Kaspar Lavater

He whose pride oppresses the humble may perhaps be humbled, but will never be humble. — Johann Kaspar Lavater

As you treat your body, so your house, your domestics, your enemies, your friends. Dress is a table of your contents. — Johann Kaspar Lavater

The ambitious sacrifices all to what he terms honor, as the miser all to money. — Johann Kaspar Lavater

The public seldom forgive twice. — Johann Kaspar Lavater

Modesty is silent when it would be improper to speak; the humble, without being called upon, never recollects to say anything of himself. — Johann Kaspar Lavater

Who has a daring eye tell downright truths and downright lies. — Johann Kaspar Lavater

Know in the first place, that mankind agree in essence, as they do in limbs and senses. — Johann Kaspar Lavater