Lavater, Johann Kaspar (Johann Kaspar Lavater)

Who in the same given time can produce more than others has vigor; who can produce more and better, has talents; who can produce what none else can, has genius.
-- 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

Say not you know another entirely, till you have divided an inheritance with him.
-- Johann Kaspar Lavater

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

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

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

Let none turn over books, or roam the stars in quest of God, who sees him not in man.
-- Johann Kaspar Lavater

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

The public seldom forgive twice.
-- Johann Kaspar Lavater

Venerate four characters: the sanguine who has checked volatility and the rage for pleasure; the choleric who has subdued passion and pride; the phlegmatic emerged from indolence; and the melancholy who has dismissed avarice, suspicion and asperity.
-- Johann Kaspar Lavater

If you mean to know yourself, interline such of these aphorisms as affect you agreeably in reading, and set a mark to such as left a sense of uneasiness with you; and then show your copy to whom you please.
-- Johann Kaspar Lavater

Action, looks, words, steps, form the alphabet by which you may spell character.
-- Johann Kaspar Lavater

Conscience is the sentinel of virtue.
-- Johann Kaspar Lavater

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

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

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

I am prejudiced in favor of him who, without impudence, can ask boldly. He has faith in humanity, and faith in himself. No one who is not accustomed to giving grandly can ask nobly and with boldness.
-- 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

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

Mistrust the person who finds everything good, and the person who finds everything evil, and mistrust even more the person who is indifferent to everything.
-- Johann Kaspar Lavater

Stubborness is the strength of the weak.
-- Johann Kaspar Lavater

The craftiest trickery are too short and ragged a cloak to cover a bad heart.
-- Johann Kaspar Lavater

The great rule of moral conduct is next to God, respect time.
-- Johann Kaspar Lavater

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

The prudent see only the difficulties, the bold only the advantages, of a great enterprise; the hero sees both; diminishes the former and makes the latter preponderate, and so conquers.
-- Johann Kaspar Lavater

There are three classes of men; the retrograde, the stationary and the progressive.
-- Johann Kaspar Lavater

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

Who makes quick use of the moment is a genius of prudence.
-- Johann Kaspar Lavater

You are not very good if you are not better than your best friends imagine you to be.
-- Johann Kaspar Lavater

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