277 Quotes by Johann Kaspar Lavater

An entirely honest man, in the severe sense of the word, exists no more than an entirely dishonest knave; the best and the worst are only approximations to those qualities. Who are those that never contradict themselves? yet honesty never contradicts itself. Who are they that always contradict themselves? yet knavery is mere self-contradiction. Thus the knowledge of man determines not the things themselves, but their proportions, the quantum of congruities and incongruities.

All belief that does not make us more happy, more free, more loving, more active, more calm, is, I fear, a mistaken and superstitious belief.

He who always prefaces his tale with laughter, is poised between impertinence and folly.

Habit is altogether too arbitrary a master for me to submit to.

He who purposely cheats his friend would cheat his God.

He has oratory who ravishes his hearers while he forgets himself.

He who, in questions of right, virtue, or duty, sets himself above all ridicule, is truly great, and shall laugh in the end with truer mirth than ever he was laughed at.

Who affects useless singularities has surely a little mind.

To realize that you were mistaken, is just the acknowledgement , that you are wiser today than you were yesterday.