Johann Kaspar Lavater Quotations | Page 3

Take here the grand secret; if not of pleasing all, yet of displeasing none, and court mediocrity, avoid originality, and sacrifice to fashion.

There are three classes of men; the retrograde, the stationary and the progressive.

Defeat serves to enlighten us.

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

He who can at all times sacrifice pleasure to duty approaches sublimity.

Conscience is wiser than science.

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.

Trust him with none of thy individualities who is, or pretends to be, two things at once.

Faces are as legible as books, only with these circumstances to recommend them to our perusal, that they are read in much less time, and are much less likely to deceive us.

Too much gravity argues a shallow mind.

The worst of all knaves are those who can mimic their former honesty.

Weaknesses, so called, are nothing more nor less than vice in disguise!

The miser robs himself.

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 obstinacy of the indolent and weak is less conquerable than that of the fiery and bold.

There is no mortal truly wise and restless at once; wisdom is the repose of minds.

The ambitious sacrifices all to what he terms honor, as the miser all to money.

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

True genius repeats itself forever, and never repeats itself--one ever varied sense beams novelty and unity on all.

Who gives is positive; who receives is negative; still there remains an immense class of mere passives.

Who values gold above all, considers all else as trifling.

He who always prefaces his tale with laughter, is poised between impertinence and folly.

He has oratory who ravishes his hearers while he forgets himself.

Who affects useless singularities has surely a little mind.

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

He can feel no little wants who is in pursuit of grandeur.

The more honesty a man has, the less he affects the air of a saint.

Three days of uninterrupted company in a vehicle will make you better acquainted with another, than one hour's conversation with him every day for three years.

When you doubt between words, use the plainest, the commonest, the most idiomatic. Eschew fine words as you would rouge; love simple ones as you would the native roses on your cheek.

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

All affectation is the vain and ridiculous attempt of poverty to appear rich

He who attempts to make others believe in means which he himself despises is a puffer; he who makes use of more means than he knows to be necessary is a quack; and he who ascribes to those means a greater efficacy than his own experience warrants is an impostor.

True worth is as inevitably discovered by the facial expression, as its opposite is sure to be clearly represented there. The human face is nature's tablet, the truth is certainly written thereon.

Thousands are hated, while none are loved without a real cause

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

The public seldom forgive twice.

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.

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

Who begins with severity, in judging of another, ends commonly with falsehood.

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