277 Quotes by Johann Kaspar Lavater

Have I done aught of value to my fellow-men? Then have I done much for myself.

Who has witnessed one free and unconstrained act of yours, has witnessed all.

The man who loves with his whole heart truth will love still more he who suffers for truth.

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.

He is incapable of a truly good action who finds not a pleasure in contemplating the good actions of others.

Three things characterize man: person, fate, merit--the harmony of these constitutes real grandeur.

What is the elevation of the soul? A prompt, delicate, certain feeling for all that is beautiful, all that is grand; a quick resolution to do the greatest good by the smallest means; a great benevolence joined to a great strength and great humility.

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.

Softness of smile indicates softness of character.