Top 200 Johann Kaspar Lavater Quotes (2024 Update)

1. “The jealous are possessed by a mad devil and a dull spirit at the same time.”

— Johann Kaspar Lavater

2. “Fools learn nothing from wise men, but wise men learn much from fools.”

— Johann Kaspar Lavater

3. “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.”

— Johann Kaspar Lavater

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

— Johann Kaspar Lavater

5. “What do I owe to my times, to my country, to my neighbors, to my friends? Such are the questions which a virtuous man ought often to ask himself.”

— Johann Kaspar Lavater

6. “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

7. “Vanity and rudeness are seldom seen together.”

— Johann Kaspar Lavater

8. “He who is passionate and hasty is generally honest. It is your cool, dissembling hypocrite of whom you should beware.”

— Johann Kaspar Lavater

9. “As your enemies and your friends, so are you.”

— Johann Kaspar Lavater

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

— Johann Kaspar Lavater

11. “The great rule of moral conduct is next to God, respect time.”

— Johann Kaspar Lavater

12. “A beautiful smile is to the female countenance what the sunbeam is to the landscape; it embellishes an inferior face and redeems an ugly one.”

— Johann Kaspar Lavater

13. “Where pride begins, love ceases.”

— Johann Kaspar Lavater

14. “She neglects her heart who too closely studies her glass.”

— Johann Kaspar Lavater

15. “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

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

— Johann Kaspar Lavater

17. “Each particle of matter is an immensity, each leaf a world, each insect an inexplicable compendium.”

— Johann Kaspar Lavater

18. “Conscience is wiser than science.”

— Johann Kaspar Lavater

19. “Three things characterize man: person, fate, merit – the harmony of these constitutes real grandeur.”

— Johann Kaspar Lavater

20. “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

21. “Thinkers are scarce as gold; but he whose thoughts embrace all his subject, and who pursues it uninterruptedly and fearless of consequences, is a diamond of enormous size.”

— Johann Kaspar Lavater

22. “Neither refinement nor delicacy is indispensable to produce elegance.”

— Johann Kaspar Lavater

23. “The policy of adapting one’s self to circumstances makes all ways smooth.”

— Johann Kaspar Lavater

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

— Johann Kaspar Lavater

25. “Stubbornness is the strength of the weak.”

— Johann Kaspar Lavater

26. “The humblest star twinkles most in the darkest night.”

— Johann Kaspar Lavater

27. “The manner of giving shows the character of the giver, more than the gift itself.”

— Johann Kaspar Lavater

28. “Airs of importance are the credentials of impotence.”

— Johann Kaspar Lavater

29. “The worst of faces still is human.”

— Johann Kaspar Lavater

30. “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.”

— Johann Kaspar Lavater

31. “He knows not how to speak who cannot be silent; still less how to act with vigor and decision. Who hastens to the end is silent; loudness is impotence.”

— Johann Kaspar Lavater

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

— Johann Kaspar Lavater

33. “As you treat your body, so your house, your domestics, your enemies, your friends. Dress is a table of your contents.”

— Johann Kaspar Lavater

34. “Depend on no man, on no friend but him who can depend on himself. He only who acts conscientiously toward himself, will act so toward others.”

— Johann Kaspar Lavater

35. “There are no friends more inseparable than pride and hardness of heart, humility and love, falsehood and impudence.”

— Johann Kaspar Lavater

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

— Johann Kaspar Lavater

37. “The miser robs himself.”

— Johann Kaspar Lavater

38. “He who purposely cheats his friend would cheat his God.”

— Johann Kaspar Lavater

39. “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

40. “Who has a daring eye tell downright truths and downright lies.”

— Johann Kaspar Lavater

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

— Johann Kaspar Lavater

42. “Modesty is silent when it would be improper to speak; the humble, without being called upon, never recollects to say anything of himself.”

— Johann Kaspar Lavater

43. “God protects those he loves from worthless reading.”

— Johann Kaspar Lavater

44. “Receive no satisfaction for premeditated impertinence; forget it, forgive it, but keep him inexorably at a distance who offered it.”

— Johann Kaspar Lavater

45. “All affectation is the vain and ridiculous attempt of poverty to appear rich.”

— Johann Kaspar Lavater

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

— Johann Kaspar Lavater

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

— Johann Kaspar Lavater

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

— Johann Kaspar Lavater

49. “Malice is poisoned by her own venom.”

— Johann Kaspar Lavater

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

— Johann Kaspar Lavater