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LAVATER, John Caspar Quotes
(1741-1801), Swiss theologian
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.
Never say you know a man till you have divided an inheritance with him.
Act well at the moment, and you have performed a good action for all eternity.
All affectation is the vain and ridiculous attempt of poverty to appear rich.
He is incapable of a truly good action who finds not a pleasure in contemplating the good actions of others.
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 give grandly can ask nobly and with boldness.
Frequent intercourse and intimate connection between two persons, make them so alike, that not only their dispositions are moulded like each other, but their very faces and tones of voice contract a similarity.
You may depend upon it that he is a good man whose intimate friends are all good, and whose enemies are decidedly bad.
Where there is much pretension, much has been borrowed; nature never pretends.
Actions, looks, words, steps, form the alphabet by which you may spell characters: some are mere letters, some contain entire words, lines, pages, which at once decipher the life of a man. One such genuine uninterrupted page may be your key to all the rest; but first be certain that he wrote it all alone, and without thinking of publisher or reader.
I have enjoyed many of the comforts of life, none of which I wish to esteem lightly; yet I confess I know not any joy that is so dear to me, that so fully satisfies the inmost desires of my mind, that so enlivens, refines, and elevates my whole nature, as that which I derive from religion—from faith in God.—May this God be thy God, thy refuge, thy comfort, as he has been mine.
He who can conceal his joys, is greater than he who can hide his griefs.
The more one speaks of himself, the less he likes to hear another talked of.
He who gives himself airs of importance, exhibits the credentials of impotence.
Trust him with little, who, without proofs, trusts you with everything, or when he has proved you, with nothing.
Trust him little who praises all; him less who censures all; and him least who is indifferent to all.
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 conversation.
The creditor whose appearance gladdens the heart of a debtor may hold his head in sunbeams, and his foot on storms.
Avoid him who, for mere curiosity, asks three questions running about a thing that cannot interest him.
The procrastinator is not only indolent and weak but commonly false too; most of the weak are false.
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.
Every man has his devilish moments.
Who makes quick use of the moment, is a genius of prudence.
He who purposely cheats his friend, would cheat his God.
As you treat your body, so your house, your domestics, your enemies, your friends.—Dress is the table of your contents.
The more any one speaks of himself, the less he likes to hear another talked of.
Be assured those will be thy worst enemies, not to whom thou hast done evil, but who have done evil to thee.— And those will be thy best friends, not to whom thou hast done good, but who have done good to thee.
He alone has energy who cannot be deprived of it.
The less you can enjoy, the poorer and scantier yourself; the more you can enjoy, the richer and more vigorous.
Evasions are the common shelter of the hard-hearted, the false, and the impotent when called upon to assist; the real great, alone plan instantaneous help, even when their looks or words presage difficulties.
Mistrust the man who finds everything good; the man who finds everything evil; and still more the man who is indifferent to everything.
Who has a daring eye, tells downright truths and downright lies.
A fop of fashion is the mercer's friend, the tailor's fool, and his own foe.
Be not too early in the fashion, nor too long out of it; nor at any time in the extremes of it.
He alone is a man, who can resist the genius of the age, the tone of fashion, with vigorous simplicity and modest courage.
If you are pleased at finding faults, you are displeased at finding perfections.
The firm, without pliancy, and the pliant, without firmness, resemble vessels without water, and water without vessels.
He who has not forgiven an enemy has never yet tasted one of the most sublime enjoyments of life.
He that hath no friend, and no enemy, is one of the vulgar; and without talents, powers, or energy.
Be not the fourth friend of him who had three before and lost them.
It is possible that a wise and good man may be prevailed on to gamble; but it is impossible that a professed gamester should be a wise and good man.
The generous who is always just, and the just who is always generous, may, unannounced, approach the throne of heaven.
Genius always gives its best at first; prudence, at last.
The manner of giving shows the character of the giver, more than the gift itself.
A gift, its kind, its value, and appearance; the silence or the pomp that attends it; the style in which it reaches you, may decide the dignity or vulgarity of the giver.
Who gives a trifle meanly is meaner than the trifle.
It is one of my favorite thoughts, that God manifests himself to mankind in all wise, good, humble, generous, great and magnanimous men.
You are not very good if you are not better than your best friends imagine you to be.
He is a good man whose intimate friends are all good, and whose enemies are decidedly bad.
Too much gravity argues a shallow mind.
He only is great who has the habits of greatness; who, after performing what none in ten thousand could accomplish, passes on like Samson, and "tells neither father nor mother of it."
Just as you are pleased at finding faults, you are displeased at finding perfections.
Thousands are hated, while none are loved without a real cause.
Each heart is a world.—You find all within yourself that you find without.—To know yourself you have only to set down a true statement of those that ever loved or hated you.
The generous who is always just, and the just who is always generous, may, unannounced, approach the throne of heaven.
The prudent see only the difficulties, the bold only the advantages, of a great enterprize; the hero sees both; diminishes the former and makes the latter preponderate, and so conquers.
He who freely praises what he means to purchase, and he who enumerates the faults of what he means to sell, may set up a partnership with honesty.
Humility and love are the essence of true religion; the humble formed to adore; the loving to associate with eternal love.
It is a poor wit who lives by borrowing the words, decisions, mien, inventions, and actions of others.
Receive no satisfaction for premeditated impertinence; forget it, and forgive it, but keep inexorably at a distance him who offered it.
Indiscretion, rashness, falsehood, levity, and malice produce each other.
Injustice arises either from precipitation, or indolence, or from a mixture of both.—The rapid and slow are seldom just; the unjust wait either not at all, or wait too long.
He who can conceal his joys is greater than he who can hide his griefs.
The worst of all knaves are those who can mimic their former honesty.
Beware of him who hates the laugh of a child.
The horse-laugh indicates coarseness or brutality of character.
Learning is wealth to the poor, an honor to the rich, an aid to the young, and a support and comfort to the aged.
He who always seeks more light the more he finds, and finds more the more he seeks, is one of the few happy mortals who take and give in every point of time. The tide and ebb of giving and receiving is the sum of human happiness, which he alone enjoys who always wishes to acquire new knowledge, and always finds it.
No communications can exhaust genius; no gifts impoverish charity.
He who, silent, loves to be with us—he who loves us in our silence—has touched one of the keys that ravish hearts.
Love sees what no eye sees; love hears what no ear hears; and what never rose in the heart of man love prepares for its object.
There are but three classes of men, the retrograde, the stationary, and the progressive.
Who cannot make one in the circle of harmless merriment may be suspected of pride, hypocrisy, or formality.
Each particle of matter is an immensity; each leaf a world; each insect an inexplicable compendium.
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.
He alone is an acute observer, who can observe minutely without being observed.
Obstinacy is the strength of the weak. Firmness founded upon principle, upon truth and right, order and law, duty and generosity, is the obstinacy of sages.
Who makes quick use of the moment, is a genius of prudence.
He who has opportunities to inspect the sacred moments of elevated minds, and seizes none, is a son of dullness; but he who turns those moments into ridicule, will betray with a kiss, and in embracing, murder.
He who has no taste for order, will be often wrong in his judgment, and seldom considerate or conscientious in his actions.
Ornament is but the guiled shore to a most dangerous sea; the beauteous scarf veiling an Indian beauty; in a word, the seeming truth which cunning times put on to entrap the wisest.—Shakespearean finery is a sign of littleness.
Where there is much pretension, much has been borrowed; nature never pretends.
He knows very little of mankind, who expects, by any facts or reasoning, to convince a determined party-man.
He submits to be seen through a microscope, who suffers himself to be caught in a fit of passion.
He surely is most in need of another's patience, who has none of his own.
Pedantry and taste are as inconsistent as gayety and melancholy.
True philosophy is that which makes us to ourselves and to all about us, better; and at the same time, more content, patient, calm, and more ready for all decent and pure enjoyment.
He who observes the speaker more than the sound of his words, will seldom meet with disappointments.
He who can at all times sacrifice pleasure to duty approaches sublimity.
The proverbial wisdom of the populace at gates, on roads, and in markets, instructs the attentive ear of him who studies man more fully than a thousand rules ostentatiously arranged.
He who gives himself airs of importance exhibits the credentials of impotence.
Where there is much pretension, much has been borrowed; nature never pretends.
The more honesty a man has, the less he affects the air of a saint.
He who prorogues the honesty of today till tomorrow, will probably prorogue his tomorrows to eternity.
The proverbial wisdom of the populace in the street, on the roads, and in the markets, instructs the ear of him who studies man more fully than a thousand rules ostentatiously displayed.
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 imposter.
He who reforms himself, has done more toward reforming the public, that a crowd of noisy, impotent patriots.
All belief that does not render us more happy, more free, more loving, more active, more calm, is, I fear, an erroneous and superstitious belief.
There is no mortal truly wise and restless at once; wisdom is the repose of minds.
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.
Number among your worst enemies the hawker of malicious rumors and unexplored anecdote.
Trust him not with your secrets, who, when left alone in your room, turns over your papers.
He who gives himself airs of importance, exhibits the credentials of impotence.
Sensibility is the power of woman.
He who, silent, loves to be with us, and who loves us in our silence, has touched one of the keys that ravish hearts.
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.
Close thine ear against him that shall open his mouth secretly against another. If thou receivest not his words, they fly back and wound the reporter. If thou dost receive them, they fly forward, and wound the receiver.
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.
There are many kinds of smiles, each having a distinct character. Some announce goodness and sweetness, others betray sarcasm, bitterness, and pride; some soften the countenance by their languishing tenderness, others brighten by their spiritual vivacity.
A disagreeable smile distorts the lines of beauty, and is more repulsive than a frown.
The habit of sneering marks the egotist, the fool, or the knave, or all three.
A sneer is often the sign of heartless malignity.
Superstition always inspires bitterness; religion, grandeur of mind.—The superstitious man raises beings inferior to himself to deities.
Thinkers are scarce as gold; but he, whose thoughts embrace all their subject, who pursues it uninterruptedly and fearless of consequences, is a diamond of enormous size.
The great rule of moral conduct is, next to God, to respect time.
If thou desire to be wise, be so wise as to hold thy tongue.
Trust him little who praises all, him less who censures all, and him least who is indifferent about all.
She neglects her heart who studies her glass.
I know no friends more faithful and more inseparable than hard-heartedness and pride, humility and love, lies and impudence.
The most stormy ebullitions of passion, from blasphemy to murder, are less terrific than one single act of cool villainy; a still rabies is more dangerous than the paroxysms of a fever. Fear the boisterous savage of passion less than the sedately grinning villain.
How few are our real wants!—How easy it is to satisfy them!—Our imaginary ones are boundless and insatiable.
He can feel no little wants who is in pursuit of grandeur.
Weaknesses, so called, are nothing more nor less than vice in disguise!
Calmness of will is a sign of grandeur. The vulgar, far from hiding their will, blab their wishes. A single spark of occasion discharges the child of passion into a thousand crackers of desire.
The proverbial wisdom of the populace at gates, on roads, and in markets, instructs him who studies man more fully than a thousand rules ostentatiously arranged.
Wishes run over in loquacious impotence; will presses on with laconic energy.
He who seldom speaks, and with one calm well-timed word can strike dumb the loquacious, is a genius or a hero.
Learn the value of a man's words and expressions, and you know him. Each man has a measure of his own for everything; this he offers you inadvertently in his words. He who has a superlative for everything wants a measure for the great or small.
Volatility of words is carelessness in actions; words are the wings of actions.
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