Johann Kaspar Lavater
The jealous are possessed by a mad devil and a dull spirit at the same time.Collection: Jealousy
Trust him not with your secrets, who, when left alone in your room, turns over your papers.Collection: Alone
Who makes quick use of the moment is a genius of prudence.Collection: Time
The public seldom forgive twice.Collection: Politics
There are three classes of men; the retrograde, the stationary and the progressive.Collection: Men
Neatness begets order; but from order to taste there is the same difference as from taste to genius, or from love to friendship.Collection: Friendship
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.
Say not you know another entirely till you have divided an inheritance with him.
Action, looks, words, steps, form the alphabet by which you may spell character.
Intuition is the clear conception of the whole at once.
He who seldom speaks, and with one calm well-timed word can strike dumb the loquacious, is a genius or a hero.
He submits to be seen through a microscope, who suffers himself to be caught in a fit of passion.
I am prejudiced in favor of him who, without impudence, can ask boldly. He has faith in humanity, and faith in himself. No one who is not accustomed to giving grandly can ask nobly and with boldness.
Him, who incessantly laughs in the street, you may commonly hear grumbling in his closet.
Conscience is the sentinel of virtue.
Have you ever seen a pedant with a warm heart?
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.
If you wish to appear agreeable in society, you must consent to be taught many things which you know already.
You may tell a man thou art a fiend, but not your nose wants blowing; to him alone who can bear a thing of that kind, you may tell all.
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?
You are not very good if you are not better than your best friends imagine you to be.
The great rule of moral conduct is next to God, respect time.
Mistrust the person who finds everything good, and the person who finds everything evil, and mistrust even more the person who is indifferent to everything.
He, who cannot forgive a trespass of malice to his enemy, has never yet tasted the most sublime enjoyment of love.
You may depend upon it that he is a good man whose intimate friends are all good, and whose enemies are decidedly bad.
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.
If you see one cold and vehement at the same time, set him down for a fanatic.
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.
There are three classes of men; the retrograde, the stationary and the progressive.Collection: Ignorance
Avoid the eye that discovers with rapidity the bad, and is slow to see the good.Collection: Eye
The countenance is more eloquent than the tongue.Collection: Tongue
To know yourself you have only to set down a true statement of those that ever loved or hated you.Collection: Love
Truth, wisdom, love, seek reasons; malice only seeks causes.Collection: Causes
The cruelty of the effeminate is more dreadful than that or the hardy.Collection: Cruelty
Who cuts is easily wounded. The readier you are to offend the sooner you are offended.Collection: Cutting
Women are proverbially credulous.Collection: Trust
Mistrust the man who finds everything good, the man who finds everything evil and still more the man who is indifferent to everything.Collection: Inspirational
There are no friends more inseparable than pride and hardness of heart, humility and love, falsehood and impudence.Collection: Heart
Be certain that he who has betrayed thee once will betray thee again.Collection: Betrayal
All belief that does not make us more happy, more free, more loving, more active, more calm, is, I fear, a mistaken and superstitious belief.Collection: Doe
The discovery of truth, by slow progressive meditation, is wisdom. - Intuition of truth, not preceded by perceptible meditation, is genius.Collection: Discovery
He also has energy who cannot be deprived of it.Collection: Energy
He who can conceal his joys, is greater than he who can hide his griefsCollection: Grief
Who is open without levity; generous without waste; secret without craft; humble without meanness; bold without insolence; cautious without anxiety; regular, yet not formal; mild, yet not timid; firm, yet not tyrannical - is made to pass the ordeal of honour, friendship, virtue.Collection: Humble
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.Collection: Beautiful
The manner of giving shows the character of the giver, more than the gift itself.Collection: Character
As you treat your body, so your house, your domestics, your enemies, your friends - Dress is a table of your contents.Collection: House
Whenever a man undergoes a considerable change, in consequence of being observed by others, whenever he assumes another gait, another language, than what he had before he thought himself observed, be advised to guard yourself against him.Collection: Men
A fop of fashion is the mercer's friend, the tailor's fool, and his own foe.Collection: Fashion
Where there is much pretension, much has been borrowed; nature never pretends.Collection: Nature