Johann Kaspar Lavater quotes
Johann Kaspar Lavater (1741–1801): Swiss poet. The library holds 88 quotes by Johann Kaspar Lavater. The 60 below are the most quoted; search the library in the maker for the rest.
Often about: life, faith, character, happiness, kindness, friendship
The best-known Johann Kaspar Lavater quotes
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All affectation is the vain and ridiculous attempt of poverty to appear rich.
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He who can at all times sacrifice pleasure to duty approaches sublimity.
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Trust him little who praises all, him less who censures all, and him least who is indifferent about all.
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He knows very little of mankind who expects, by facts or reasoning, to convince a determined party-man.
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The generous, who is always just, and the just who is always generous, may, unannounced, approach the throne of Heaven.
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There is no mortal truly wise and restless at once; wisdom is the repose of minds.
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There are but three classes of men—the retrograde, the stationary, and the progressive.
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You may depend upon it that he is a good man whose intimate friends are all good.
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The more honesty a man has, the less he affects the air of a saint.
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If you wish to appear agreeable in society, you must consent to be taught many things which you know already.
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Genius always gives its best at first, prudence at last.
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In society want of sense is not so unpardonable as want of manners.
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Evasions are the common subterfuge of the hard-hearted, the false, and impotent, when called upon to assist.
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God manifests Himself to men in all wise, good, humble, generous, great, and magnanimous souls.
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He that can conceal his joys is greater than he who can hide his griefs.
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He who goes round about in his requests wants commonly more than he chooses to appear to want.
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Where there is much pretension, much has been borrowed; nature never pretends.
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The jealous is possessed by a “fine mad devil” and a dull spirit at once.
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He who gives himself airs of importance exhibits the credentials of impotence.
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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.
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Calmness of will is a sign of grandeur. The vulgar, far from hiding their will, blab their wishes. A single spark of occasion discharges the child of passions into a thousand crackers of desire.
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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.
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Man is free as the bird in the cage: he has powers of motion within certain limits.
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He who seldom speaks, and with one calm well-timed word can strike dumb the loquacious, is a genius or a hero.
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Thinkers are scarce as gold; but he whose thoughts embrace all his subject, pursues it uninterruptedly and fearless of consequences, is a diamond of enormous size.
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The craftiest wiles are too short and ragged a cloak to cover a bad heart.
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Intuition is the clear conception of the whole at once. It seldom belongs to man to say without presumption, “I came, I saw, I conquered.”
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Mistrust the man who finds everything good, and the man who finds everything evil, and still more the man who is indifferent to everything.
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He only is great who has the habits of greatness; who, after performing what none in ten thousand could accomplish, passes on like Samson, and “tells neither father nor mother of it.”
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Who partakes in another’s joys is a more humane character than he who partakes in his griefs.
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The manner of giving shows the character of the giver more than the gift itself. There is a princely manner of giving and accepting.
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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.
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Who forces himself on others is to himself a load. Impetuous curiosity is empty and inconstant. Prying intrusion may be suspected of whatever is little.
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He knows not how to speak who cannot be silent, still less how to act with vigour and decision.
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Who has a daring eye tells downright truths and downright lies.
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In the society of ladies, want of sense is not so unpardonable as want of manners.
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You are not very good if you are not better than your best friends imagine you to be.
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He submits himself to be seen through a microscope who suffers himself to be caught in a fit of passion.
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Each particle of matter is an immensity, each leaf a world, each insect an inexplicable compendium.
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Airs of importance are often the credentials of insignificance.
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Call him wise whose actions, words, and steps are all a clear Because to a clear Why.
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Weaknesses, so called, are neither more nor less than vice in disguise.
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He who reforms himself, has done more toward reforming the public, than a crowd of noisy, impotent patriots.
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He who is passionate and hasty is generally honest. It is your cool, dissembling hypocrite of whom you should beware.
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The cruelty of the affectionate is more dreadful than that of the hardy.
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He who reforms himself has done more towards reforming the public than a crowd of noisy impotent patriots.
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He who partakes in another’s joys is more humane than he who partakes in his griefs.
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Speak no evil of a man if you know it not of him for certain, and if you do know it, then ask yourself, “Why do I tell it?”
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He who, in questions of right, virtue, or duty, sets himself above all ridicule, is truly great, and shall laugh in the end with truer mirth than ever he was laughed at.
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The more anyone speaks of himself, the less he likes to hear another talked of.
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The more any one speaks of himself, the less he likes to hear another talked of.
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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?
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The great role of moral conduct is, next to God, to respect time.
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Actions, looks, words, steps, form the alphabet by which you may spell characters.
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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.
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A fop is the mercer’s friend, the tailor’s fool, and his own foe.
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Each heart is a world. You find all within yourself that you find without. The world that surrounds you is the magic glass of the world within you.
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The great rule of moral conduct is, next to God, to respect time.
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Faces are as legible as books, only they are read in much less time, and are much less likely to deceive us.
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The world that surrounds you is the magic glass of the world within you. To know yourself you have only to set down a true statement of those that ever loved or hated you.