Johann Kaspar Lavater Quotes

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

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

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

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?

You can depend on no man, on no friend, but him who can depend on himself.

Trust him not with your secrets, who, when left alone in your room, turns over your papers.

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

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

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

Sensibility is the power of woman.

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

Mistrust the man who finds everything good, the man who finds everything evil and still more the man who is indifferent to everything.

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.

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?

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

How few our real wants, and how vast our imaginary ones!

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

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.

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

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

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.

Trust him little who praise all, him less who censures all and him least who is indifferent about all.

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.

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

Say not you know another entirely till you have divided an inheritance with him.

Malice is poisoned by her own venom.

Where there is much pretension, much has been borrowed; nature never pretends.

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

Intuition is the clear conception of the whole at once.

The cruelty of the effeminate is more dreadful than that or the hardy.

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

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

Where pride begins, love ceases.

Action, looks, words, steps, form the alphabet by which you may spell character.

Softness of smile indicates softness of character.

The more any one speaks of himself, the less he likes to hear another talked of.

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

He who is passionate and hasty is generally honest. It is your cool, dissembling hypocrite of whom you should beware.

Stubbornness is the strength of the weak.

Truth, wisdom, love, seek reasons; malice only seeks causes.

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

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

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.

He who purposely cheats his friend would cheat his God.

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

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

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.

Every man has his devilish minutes.

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

The worst of faces still is human.