Johann Kaspar Lavater Quotes
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.
It is possible that a wise and good man may be prevailed on to game; but it is impossi∣ble that a professed gamester should be a wise and good man.
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.
The generous person is always just, and the just who is always generous may, unannounced, approach the throne of heaven.
He who has no taste for order, will be often wrong in his judgment, and seldom considerate or conscientious in his actions.
The enemy of art is the enemy of nature; art is nothing but the highest sagacity and exertion of human nature; and what nature will he honour who honours not the human?
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.
The obstinacy of the indolent and weak is less conquerable than that of the fiery and bold.
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.
The creditor whose appearance gladdens the heart of a debtor may hold his head in sunbeams and his foot on storms.
Desire is the uneasiness a man finds in himself upon the absence of anything whose present enjoyment carries the idea of delight with it.
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.
He, who boldly interposes between a merciless censor and his prey, is a man of vigor: and he who, mildly wise, without wounding, convinces him of his error, commands our veneration.
Who begins with severity, in judging of another, ends commonly with falsehood.
The true friend of truth and good loves them under all forms, but he loves them most under the most simple form.
The quicker, the louder, the applause with which another tries to gain you over to his purpose - the bitterer his censure if he miss his aim.
His calumny is not only the greatest benefit a rogue can confer on us, but the only service he will perform for nothing.
Have I done aught of value to my fellow-men? Then have I done much for myself.
He is incapable of a truly good action who finds not a pleasure in contemplating the good actions of others.
He who always prefaces his tale with laughter, is poised between impertinence and folly.
He whom common, gross, or stale objects allure, and when obtained, content, is a vulgar being, incapable of greatness in thought or action.
Avoid him who from mere curiosity asks three questions running about a thing that cannot interest Him.
Superstition always inspires littleness, religion grandeur of mind; the superstitious raises beings inferior to himself to deities.
He knows very little of mankind who expects, by any facts or reasoning, to convince a determined party man.
Copiousness and simplicity, variety and unity, constitute real greatness of character.
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.
He who reforms himself has done more towards reforming the public than a crowd or noisy, impotent patriots.
There are three classes of men; the retrograde, the stationary and the progressive.
The most stormy ebullitions of passion, from blasphemy to murder, are less terrific than one single act of cool villainy.
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.
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.
