Johann Kaspar Lavater Quotes Page 2

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

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

“He who makes too much or too little of himself has a false measure for everything.”

“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.”

“He who seldom speaks, and with one calm well-timed word can strike dumb the loquacious, is a genius or a hero.”

“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.”

“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.”

“He, who cannot forgive a trespass of malice to his enemy, has never yet tasted the most sublime enjoyment of love.”

“Him, who incessantly laughs in the street, you may commonly hear grumbling in his closet.”

“His calumny is not only the greatest benefit a rogue can confer on us, but the only service he will perform for nothing.”

“Humility with energy is often mistaken for pride.”

“I am prejudiced in favour of him who can solicit boldly, without imprudence. He has faith in humanity — he has faith in himself. No one who is not accustomed to give grandly can ask nobly and with boldness.”

“If you are pleased at finding faults, you are displeased at finding perfections.”

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

“If you wish to appear agreeable in society, you must consent to be taught many things which you already know.”

“Indiscretion, rashness, falsehood, levity, and malice, produce each other.”

“Intuition is the clear conception of the whole at once.”

“Know in the first place, that mankind agree in essence, as they do in limbs and senses.”

“Let none turn over books, or roam the stars in quest of God, who sees him not in man.”

“Loudness is impotence.”

“May God preserve those he loves from profitless reading.”

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

“Neatness begets order; but from order to taste there is the same difference as from taste to genius, or from love to friendship.”

“Say not you know another entirely, till you have divided an inheritance with him.”

“She whom smiles and tears make equally lovely may command all hearts.”

“Strange that cowards cannot see that their greatest safety lies in dauntless courage.”

“Stubbornness is the strength of the weak.”

“Superstition always inspires littleness, religion grandeur of mind: the superstitious raises beings inferior to himself to deities.”

“The acquisition of will, for one thing exclusively, presupposes entire acquaintance with many others.”

“The conscience is more wise than science.”