Top 15 Johann Kaspar Lavater Quotes

You are not very good if you are not better than your best friends imagine you to be.

He alone is an acute observer, who can observe minutely without being observed.

Make this poor self grow less and less, Be Thou my life and aim ; Oh, make me daily, through Thy grace, More worthy of Thy name.

Si quieres ser sabio, aprende a interrogar razonablemente, a escuchar con atención, a responder serenamente y a callar cuando no tengas nada que decir.

Say not you know another entirely, till you have divided an inheritance with him.

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.

May God preserve those he loves from profitless reading.

Who purposely cheats his friend,
would cheat his God.

"About Fuseli: "...the most original genius I know. Nothing but energy, profusion and calm! The wildness of the warrior — and the feeling of supreme sublimity! … His spirits are storm wind, his ministers flames of fire! He goes upon the wings of the wind. His laughter is the mockery of hell and his love — a deadly lightning-flash.

Mistrust the man who finds everything good; the man who find everything evil; and more the man who is indifferent to everything.

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.

Actions, looks, words, steps, form the alphabet by which you may spell characters.

All great minds sympathize.

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.

He submits to be seen through a microscope, who suffers himself to be caught in a fit of passion.