1.
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
2.
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
3.
The craftiest trickery are too short and ragged a cloak to cover a bad heart.
Johann Kaspar Lavater
4.
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?
Johann Kaspar Lavater
5.
You can depend on no man, on no friend, but him who can depend on himself.
Johann Kaspar Lavater
6.
Trust him not with your secrets, who, when left alone in your room, turns over your papers.
Johann Kaspar Lavater
7.
Who makes quick use of the moment is a genius of prudence.
Johann Kaspar Lavater
8.
Him, who incessantly laughs in the street, you may commonly hear grumbling in his closet.
Johann Kaspar Lavater
9.
Be certain that he who has betrayed thee once will betray thee again.
Johann Kaspar Lavater
10.
Sensibility is the power of woman.
Johann Kaspar Lavater
11.
There are no friends more inseparable than pride and hardness of heart, humility and love, falsehood and impudence.
Johann Kaspar Lavater
12.
Mistrust the man who finds everything good, the man who finds everything evil and still more the man who is indifferent to everything.
Johann Kaspar Lavater
13.
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
14.
Don't speak evil of someone if you don't know for certain, and if you do know ask yourself, why am I telling it?
Johann Kaspar Lavater
15.
The jealous are possessed by a mad devil and a dull spirit at the same time.
Johann Kaspar Lavater
16.
How few our real wants, and how vast our imaginary ones!
Johann Kaspar Lavater
17.
He, who cannot forgive a trespass of malice to his enemy, has never yet tasted the most sublime enjoyment of love.
Johann Kaspar Lavater
18.
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
19.
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
20.
If you wish to appear agreeable in society, you must consent to be taught many things which you already know.
Johann Kaspar Lavater
21.
There are many kinds of smiles, each having a distinct character. Some announce goodness and sweetness, others betray sarcasm, bitterness and pride; some soften the countenance by their languishing tenderness, others brighten by their spiritual vivacity.
Johann Kaspar Lavater
22.
Trust him little who praise all, him less who censures all and him least who is indifferent about all.
Johann Kaspar Lavater
23.
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
24.
He submits himself to be seen through a microscope, who suffers himself to be caught in a fit of passion.
Johann Kaspar Lavater
25.
Say not you know another entirely till you have divided an inheritance with him.
Johann Kaspar Lavater
26.
Malice is poisoned by her own venom.
Johann Kaspar Lavater
27.
Where there is much pretension, much has been borrowed; nature never pretends.
Johann Kaspar Lavater
28.
He who can conceal his joys, is greater than he who can hide his griefs
Johann Kaspar Lavater
29.
Intuition is the clear conception of the whole at once.
Johann Kaspar Lavater
30.
The cruelty of the effeminate is more dreadful than that or the hardy.
Johann Kaspar Lavater
31.
If you see one cold and vehement at the same time, set him down for a fanatic.
Johann Kaspar Lavater
32.
Strange that cowards cannot see that their greatest safety lies in dauntless courage.
Johann Kaspar Lavater
33.
Where pride begins, love ceases.
Johann Kaspar Lavater
34.
Action, looks, words, steps, form the alphabet by which you may spell character.
Johann Kaspar Lavater
35.
Softness of smile indicates softness of character.
Johann Kaspar Lavater
36.
The more any one speaks of himself, the less he likes to hear another talked of.
Johann Kaspar Lavater
37.
The more uniform a man's voice, step, manner of conversation, handwriting--the more quiet, uniform, settled, his actions, his character.
Johann Kaspar Lavater
38.
He who is passionate and hasty is generally honest. It is your cool, dissembling hypocrite of whom you should beware.
Johann Kaspar Lavater
39.
Stubbornness is the strength of the weak.
Johann Kaspar Lavater
40.
Truth, wisdom, love, seek reasons; malice only seeks causes.
Johann Kaspar Lavater
41.
He who sedulously attends, pointedly asks, calmly speaks, coolly answers and ceases when he has no more to say is in possession of some of the best requisites of man
Johann Kaspar Lavater
42.
The mingled incentives which lead to action are often too subtle and lie too deep for us to analyze.
Johann Kaspar Lavater
43.
He knows not how to speak who cannot be silent; still less how to act with vigour and decision. - Who hastens to the end is silent: loudness is impotence.
Johann Kaspar Lavater
44.
He who purposely cheats his friend would cheat his God.
Johann Kaspar Lavater
45.
The wrath that on conviction subsides into mildness, is the wrath of a generous mind.
Johann Kaspar Lavater
46.
He whose pride oppresses the humble may perhaps be humbled, but will never be humble.
Johann Kaspar Lavater
47.
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.
Johann Kaspar Lavater
48.
Every man has his devilish minutes.
Johann Kaspar Lavater
49.
He who prorogues the honesty of today till to-morrow will probably prorogue his to-morrows to eternity.
Johann Kaspar Lavater
50.
The worst of faces still is human.
Johann Kaspar Lavater
