Johann Kaspar Lavater

Johann Kaspar Lavater (15 November 1741 – 2 January 1801) was a Swiss poet, writer, philosopher and theologian.

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

Quotes

Act well at the moment, and you have performed a good action to all eternity.

• Act well at the moment, and you have performed a good action to all eternity.
  • Reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 4

• Happy the heart to whom God has given enough strength and courage to suffer for Him, to find happiness in simplicity and the happiness of others.
  • Reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 246

• Never tell evil of a man, if you do not know it for certainty, and if you know it for a certainty, then ask yourself, 'Why should I tell it?'
  • As quoted in What Billingsgate Thought: A Country Gentleman's Views on Snobbery (1919) by William Alexander Newman Dorland

Aphorisms on Man (1788)

Aphorisms on Man, translated by Henry Fuseli (London: J. Johnson, 1788)

If you mean to know yourself, interline such of these aphorisms as affect you agreeably in reading, and set a mark to such as left a sense of uneasiness with you; and then show your copy to whom you please.

• 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.
  • No. 23

• All affectation is the vain and ridiculous attempt of poverty to appear rich.
  • No. 53

• 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.
  • No. 84

• Who makes quick use of the moment is a genius of prudence.
  • No. 91

• The discovery of truth by slow progressive meditation is wisdom. Intuition of truth, not preceded by perceptible meditation, is genius.
  • No. 93

• Who seldom speaks, and with one calm well-timed word can strike dumb the loquacious, is a genius among those who study nature.
  • No. 126

• Say not you know another entirely, till you have divided an inheritance with him.
  • No. 157

• 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.
  • No. 170

• Too much gravity argues a shallow mind.
  • No. 183

• He who makes too much or too little of himself has a false measure for everything.
  • No. 188

• He who has no taste for order will be often wrong in his judgements, and seldom considerate or conscientious in his actions.
  • No. 189

• The more honesty a man has, the less he affects the air of a saint — the affectation of sanctity is a blotch on the face of piety.
  • No. 200

• The craftiest wiles are too short and ragged a cloak to cover a bad heart.
  • No. 259

• Have you ever seen a pedant with a warm heart?
  • No. 270

• If you see one cold and vehement at the same time, set him down for a fanatic.
  • No. 292

• 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.
  • No. 302

• Him, who incessantly laughs in the street, you may commonly hear grumbling in his closet.
  • No. 315

• Superstition always inspires littleness, religion grandeur of mind: the superstitious raises beings inferior to himself to deities.
  • No. 342

• The jealous is possessed by a "fine mad devil" and a dull spirit at once.
  • No. 345
  • In William Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Windsor, Act 5, sc. 1, Falstaff says that Mistress Ford's husband has "the finest mad devil of jealousy in him".

• Good may be done by the bad — but the good alone can be good.
  • No. 362

• There are but three classes of men — the retrograde, the stationary, the progressive.
  • No. 371

• The prudent sees only the difficulties, the bold only the advantages, of a great enterprise; the hero sees both, diminishes those, makes these preponderate, and conquers.
  • No. 390

• Let none turn over books, or roam the stars in quest of God, who sees him not in man.
  • No. 408

• Trust not him with your secrets, who, when left alone in your room, turns over your papers.
  • No. 449

• A woman whose ruling passion is not vanity, is superior to any man of equal faculties.
  • No. 450

• Trust him little who praises all, him less who censures all, and him least of all who is indifferent about all.
  • No. 491

• You are not very good if you are not better than your best friends imagine you to be.
  • No. 536

• Where there is much pretension, much has been borrowed — nature never pretends.
  • No. 556

• Neatness begets order; but from order to taste there is the same difference as from taste to genius, or from love to friendship.
  • No. 594

• The public seldom forgive twice.
  • No. 606

• He submits to be seen through a microscope, who suffers himself to be caught in a fit of passion.
  • No. 608

• 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.
  • No. 609

• All great minds sympathize.
  • No. 610

• Actions, looks, words, steps, form the alphabet by which you may spell characters.
  • No. 637

• If you mean to know yourself, interline such of these aphorisms as affect you agreeably in reading, and set a mark to such as left a sense of uneasiness with you; and then show your copy to whom you please.
  • No. 643