A gift, its kind, its value, and appearance; the silence or the pomp that attends it; the style in which it reaches you, may decide the dignity or vulgarity of the giver.
—Johann Kaspar Lavater
Topics: Gifts
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
Topics: Genius
Have I done aught of value to my fellow-men?. Then have I done much for myself
—Johann Kaspar Lavater
Topics: Usefullness
The most stormy ebullitions of passion, from blasphemy to murder, are less terrific than one single act of cool villainy; a still rabies is more dangerous than the paroxysms of a fever. Fear the boisterous savage of passion less than the sedately grinning villain.
—Johann Kaspar Lavater
Be assured those will be thy worst enemies, not to whom thou hast done evil, but who have done evil to thee.—And those will be thy best friends, not to whom thou hast done good, but who have done good to thee.
—Johann Kaspar Lavater
Topics: Enemies
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
Topics: Smile, Smiles
Actions, looks, words, steps, form the alphabet by which you may spell characters: some are mere letters, some contain entire words, lines, pages, which at once decipher the life of a man. One such genuine uninterrupted page may be your key to all the rest; but first be certain that he wrote it all alone, and without thinking of publisher or reader.
—Johann Kaspar Lavater
Topics: Character
No communications can exhaust genius; no gifts impoverish charity.
—Johann Kaspar Lavater
Be not the fourth friend of him who had three before and lost them.
—Johann Kaspar Lavater
Topics: Friends, Friendship
All belief that does not render us more happy, more free, more loving, more active, more calm, is, I fear, an erroneous and superstitious belief.
—Johann Kaspar Lavater
Topics: Religion
The worst of all knaves are those who can mimic their former honesty.
—Johann Kaspar Lavater
Trust him little who praises all, him less who censures all, and him least who is indifferent about all.
—Johann Kaspar Lavater
Topics: Trust, Confidence, Praise
He is incapable of a truly good action who finds not a pleasure in contemplating the good actions of others.
—Johann Kaspar Lavater
Topics: Appreciation, Action
There are three classes of men; the retrograde, the stationary and the progressive.
—Johann Kaspar Lavater
Topics: Man, Men
Number among your worst enemies the hawker of malicious rumors and unexplored anecdote.
—Johann Kaspar Lavater
The public seldom forgive twice.
—Johann Kaspar Lavater
Topics: Public
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
Topics: Moderation
Obstinacy is the strength of the weak. Firmness founded upon principle, upon truth and right, order and law, duty and generosity, is the obstinacy of sages.
—Johann Kaspar Lavater
Topics: Attitude
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
Topics: Order
He knows very little of mankind who expects, by any facts or reasoning, to convince a determined party man.
—Johann Kaspar Lavater
Topics: Politics, Politicians, Party
Him, who incessantly laughs in the street, you may commonly hear grumbling in his closet.
—Johann Kaspar Lavater
Topics: Laughter
Vanity and rudeness are seldom seen together.
—Johann Kaspar Lavater
Topics: Vanity
Wishes run over in loquacious impotence; will presses on with laconic energy.
—Johann Kaspar Lavater
Topics: Wishes
As you treat your body, so your house, your domestics, your enemies, your friends.—Dress is the table of your contents.
—Johann Kaspar Lavater
Topics: Dress
Cowards cannot see that their greatest safety lies in dauntless courage.
—Johann Kaspar Lavater
Topics: Courage, Cowardice
Say not you know another entirely till you have divided an inheritance with him.
—Johann Kaspar Lavater
Topics: Inheritance, Wealth, Divorce
He who reforms himself, has done more toward reforming the public, that a crowd of noisy, impotent patriots.
—Johann Kaspar Lavater
Topics: Reform
All affectation is the vain and ridiculous attempt of poverty to appear rich.
—Johann Kaspar Lavater
Topics: Affectation
He alone has energy who cannot be deprived of it.
—Johann Kaspar Lavater
Topics: Energy
Be not too early in the fashion, nor too long out of it; nor at any time in the extremes of it.
—Johann Kaspar Lavater
Topics: Fashion
Wondering Whom to Read Next?
- Jean Antoine Petit-Senn Swiss Poet
- Hermann Hesse Swiss Novelist, Poet
- Thomas Browne English Author, Physician
- Henri Frederic Amiel Swiss Philosopher, Writer
- John C. Maxwell American Christian Professional Speaker
- Karl Barth Swiss Protestant Theologian
- Alberto Giacometti Swiss Sculptor, Painter
- Jean-Jacques Rousseau French Philosopher
- Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi Swiss Educator
- Carl Gustav Jung Swiss Psychologist
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