277 Quotes by Johann Kaspar Lavater

Man without religion is a diseased creature, who would persuade himself he is well and needs not a physician; but woman without religion is raging and monstrous.

Who cuts is easily wounded. The readier you are to offend the sooner you are offended.

True philosophy is that which renders us to ourselves, and all others who surround us, better, and at the same time more content, more patient, more calm and more ready for all decent and pure enjoyment.

The quicker, the louder, the applause with which another tries to gain you over to his purpose--the bitterer his censure if he miss his aim.

What knowledge is there of which man is capable that is not founded on the exterior,--the relation that exists between visible and invisible, the perceptible and the imperceptible?

Avoid the eye that discovers with rapidity the bad, and is slow to see the good.

The mingled incentives which lead to action are often too subtle and lie too deep for us to analyze.

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 honor, friendship, virtue.

Modesty is silent when it would be improper to speak; the humble, without being called upon, never recollects to say anything of himself.