Swiss poet & physiognomist (1741-1801)
Call him wise whose actions, words, and steps, are all a clear because to a clear why.
JOHANN KASPAR LAVATER
Aphorisms on Man
The loss of taste for what is right is loss of all right taste.
JOHANN KASPAR LAVATER
Aphorisms on Man
Can he love truth who can take a knave to his bosom?
JOHANN KASPAR LAVATER
Aphorisms on Man
Who has a daring eye tells downright truths and downright lies.
JOHANN KASPAR LAVATER
Aphorisms on Man
Who values gold above all, considers all else as trifling.
JOHANN KASPAR LAVATER
Aphorisms on Man
Who trades in contradictions will not be contradicted.
JOHANN KASPAR LAVATER
Aphorisms on Man
Neatness begets order; but from order to taste there is the same difference as from taste to genius, or from love to friendship.
JOHANN KASPAR LAVATER
Aphorisms on Man
Say not you know another entirely till you have divided an inheritance with him.
JOHANN KASPAR LAVATER
Aphorisms on Man
Calmness of will is a sign of grandeur.
JOHANN KASPAR LAVATER
Aphorisms on Man
Who cuts is easily wounded. The readier you are to offend the sooner you are offended.
JOHANN KASPAR LAVATER
Aphorisms on Man
Trust him little who praises all, him less who censures all, and him least who is indifferent about all.
JOHANN KASPAR LAVATER
attributed, Wise Words and Quotes
Existence is self-enjoyment, by means of some object distinct from ourselves.
JOHANN KASPAR LAVATER
Aphorisms on Man
As man's love or hatred, so he. Love and hatred exist only personified.
JOHANN KASPAR LAVATER
Aphorisms on Man
You can depend on no man, on no friend, but him who can depend on himself.
JOHANN KASPAR LAVATER
Aphorisms on Man
Before thou callest a man hero or genius, investigate whether his exertion has features of indelibility; for all that is celestial, all genius, is the offspring of immortality.
JOHANN KASPAR LAVATER
Aphorisms on Man
Indiscretion, rashness, falsehood, levity, and malice, produce each other.
JOHANN KASPAR LAVATER
Aphorisms on Man
Trust him with none of thy individualities who is, or pretends to be, two things at once.
JOHANN KASPAR LAVATER
Aphorisms on Man
Decided ends are sure signs of a decided character.
JOHANN KASPAR LAVATER
Aphorisms on Man
The greatest of characters, no doubt, would be he, who, free of all trifling accidental helps, could see objects through one grand immutable medium, always at hand, and proof against illusion and time, reflecting every object in its true shape and color through all the fluctuation of things.
JOHANN KASPAR LAVATER
Aphorisms on Man
Who knows whence he comes, where he is, and whither he tends, he, and he alone, is wise.
JOHANN KASPAR LAVATER
Aphorisms on Man