Johann Kaspar Lavater

Wisdom is the repose of the mind.

— Johann Kaspar Lavater

He scatters enjoyment who can enjoy much.

— Johann Kaspar Lavater

Where pride begins, love ceases.

— Johann Kaspar Lavater

Too much gravity argues a shallow mind.

— Johann Kaspar Lavater

The public seldom forgive twice.

— Johann Kaspar Lavater

Conscience is the sentinel of virtue.

— Johann Kaspar Lavater

Who is fatal to others is so to himself.

— Johann Kaspar Lavater

True love, like the eye, can bear no flaw.

— Johann Kaspar Lavater

Action, looks, words, steps, form the alphabet by which you may spell character.

— Johann Kaspar Lavater

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

— Johann Kaspar Lavater

No communication or gift can exhaust genius or impoverish charity.

— Johann Kaspar Lavater

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

— Johann Kaspar Lavater

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

— Johann Kaspar Lavater

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

— Johann Kaspar Lavater

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

— Johann Kaspar Lavater

He surely is most in need of another's patience, who has none of his own.

— Johann Kaspar Lavater

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

— Johann Kaspar Lavater

The most stormy ebullitions of passion, from blasphemy to murder, are less terrific than one single act of cool villainy.

— Johann Kaspar Lavater

He whom common, gross, or stale objects allure, and when obtained, content, is a vulgar being, incapable of greatness in thought or…

— Johann Kaspar Lavater

Faces are as legible as books, only with these circumstances to recommend them to our perusal, that they are read in much…

— Johann Kaspar Lavater

Great minds comprehend more in a word, a look, a pressure of the hand than ordinary men in long conversations, or the…

— Johann Kaspar Lavater

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

— Johann Kaspar Lavater

He is incapable of truly good action who finds not a pleasure in contemplating the good actions of others.

— Johann Kaspar Lavater

The mingled incentives which lead to action are often too subtle and lie too deep for us to analyze.

— Johann Kaspar Lavater

When you doubt between words, use the plainest, the commonest, the most idiomatic. Eschew fine words as you would rouge; love simple…

— Johann Kaspar Lavater

Nothing is so pregnant as cruelty; so multifarious, so rapid, so ever teeming a mother is unknown to the animal kingdom; each…

— Johann Kaspar Lavater

True worth is as inevitably discovered by the facial expression, as its opposite is sure to be clearly represented there. The human…

— Johann Kaspar Lavater

Who is open without levity; generous without waste; secret without craft; humble without meanness; bold without insolence; cautious without anxiety; regular, yet…

— Johann Kaspar Lavater

He, who boldly interposes between a merciless censor and his prey, is a man of vigor: and he who, mildly wise, without…

— Johann Kaspar Lavater

True philosophy is that which renders us to ourselves, and all others who surround us, better, and at the same time more…

— Johann Kaspar Lavater

Venerate four characters: the sanguine who has checked volatility and the rage for pleasure; the choleric who has subdued passion and pride;…

— Johann Kaspar Lavater

He who attempts to make others believe in means which he himself despises is a puffer; he who makes use of more…

— Johann Kaspar Lavater

Many very intelligent agreeable persons have warts on the forehead, not brown, nor very large, between the eyebrows, which have nothing in…

— Johann Kaspar Lavater

An entirely honest man, in the severe sense of the word, exists no more than an entirely dishonest knave: the best and…

— Johann Kaspar Lavater

Avoid connecting yourself with characters whose good and bad sides are unmixed and have not fermented together; they resemble vials of vinegar…

— Johann Kaspar Lavater

A great passion has no partner.

— Johann Kaspar Lavater

Stubbornness is the strength of the weak.

— Johann Kaspar Lavater

Half talent is no talent.

— Johann Kaspar Lavater

All finery is a sign of littleness.

— Johann Kaspar Lavater

The immoderate cannot laugh moderately.

— Johann Kaspar Lavater