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 honour, friendship, virtue.

Johann Kaspar Lavater

Categorized in : Humble Secret Anxiety

Who makes quick use of the moment is a genius of prudence.

Johann Kaspar Lavater

use-it-or-lose-it failure opportunity

Be certain that he who has betrayed thee once will betray thee again.

Johann Kaspar Lavater

betrayal betrayed thee

Depend on no man, on no friend but him who can depend on himself. He only who acts conscientiously toward himself, will act so toward others.

Johann Kaspar Lavater

dependence-on-others no-friends men

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.

Johann Kaspar Lavater

passion pride character

He who seldom speaks, and with one calm well-timed word can strike dumb the loquacious, is a genius or a hero.

Johann Kaspar Lavater

stupid hero time

He who can conceal his joys, is greater than he who can hide his griefs

Johann Kaspar Lavater

greater grief joy

Who, in the midst of just provocation to anger, instantly finds the fit word which settles all around him in silence is more than wise or just; he is, were he a beggar, of more than royal blood, he is of celestial descent.

Johann Kaspar Lavater

silence wise blood

Him, who incessantly laughs in the street, you may commonly hear grumbling in his closet.

Johann Kaspar Lavater

grumbling laughter laughing

Mistrust the man who finds everything good, the man who finds everything evil and still more the man who is indifferent to everything.

Johann Kaspar Lavater

evil inspirational men

The public seldom forgive twice.

Johann Kaspar Lavater

forgiving society

I am prejudiced in favor of him who, without impudence, can ask boldly. He has faith in humanity, and faith in himself. No one who is not accustomed to giving grandly can ask nobly and with boldness.

Johann Kaspar Lavater

faith giving character

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.

Johann Kaspar Lavater

calm belief doe

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

genius hero men

The jealous are possessed by a mad devil and a dull spirit at the same time.

Johann Kaspar Lavater

mad jealousy time

Who recollects distinctly his past adventures, knows his destiny to come.

Johann Kaspar Lavater

destiny adventure past

Don't speak evil of someone if you don't know for certain, and if you do know ask yourself, why am I telling it?

Johann Kaspar Lavater

gossip speak evil

Strange that cowards cannot see that their greatest safety lies in dauntless courage.

Johann Kaspar Lavater

coward safety lying

His calumny is not only the greatest benefit a rogue can confer on us, but the only service he will perform for nothing.

Johann Kaspar Lavater

calumny-is benefits rogues

A fop of fashion is the mercer's friend, the tailor's fool, and his own foe.

Johann Kaspar Lavater

tailors fool fashion

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.

Johann Kaspar Lavater

know-yourself reading mean