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When You Doubt Between Words, Use The Plainest, The Commonest, The Most Idiomatic. Eschew Fine Words As You Would Rouge; Love Simple Ones As You Would The Native Roses On Your Cheek.

-Johann Kaspar Lavater

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When You Doubt Between

Johann Kaspar Lavater

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When You Doubt Between Words, Use The Plainest, The Commonest, The Most Idiomatic. Eschew Fine Words As You Would Rouge; Love Simple Ones As You Would The Native Roses On Your Cheek.

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The Discovery Of Truth, By Slow Progressive Meditation, Is Wisdom. - Intuition Of Truth, Not Preceded By Perceptible Meditation, Is Genius.

Three Things Characterize Man: Person, Fate, Merit--the Harmony Of These Constitutes Real Grandeur.

Neither Refinement Nor Delicacy Is Indispensable To Produce Elegance.

You Can Depend On No Man, On No Friend, But Him Who Can Depend On Himself.

Airs Of Importance Are The Credentials Of Impotence.

The Great Rule Of Moral Conduct Is Next To God, Respect Time.

Dread More The Blunderer's Friendship Than The Calumniator's Enmity.

All Affectation Is The Vain And Ridiculous Attempt Of Poverty To Appear Rich

The Mingled Incentives Which Lead To Action Are Often Too Subtle And Lie Too Deep For Us To Analyze.

Who Trades In Contradictions Will Not Be Contradicted.

Do Not Believe That A Book Is Good, If In Reading It Thou Dost Not Become More Contented With Thy Existence, If It Does Not Rouse Up In Thee Most Generous Feelings.

Vociferation And Calmness Of Character Seldom Meet In The Same Person.

The Worst Of All Knaves Are Those Who Can Mimic Their Former Honesty.

The Countenance Is More Eloquent Than The Tongue.

He Whose Pride Oppresses The Humble May Perhaps Be Humbled, But Will Never Be Humble.

The True Friend Of Truth And Good Loves Them Under All Forms, But He Loves Them Most Under The Most Simple Form.

Have I Done Aught Of Value To My Fellow-men? Then Have I Done Much For Myself.

The More Honesty A Man Has, The Less He Affects The Air Of A Saint.

Whatever Obscurities May Involve Religious Tenets, Humility And Love Constitute The Essence Of True Religion; The Humble Is Formed To Adore, The Loving To Associate With Eternal Love.

Fools Learn Nothing From Wise Men, But Wise Men Learn Much From Fools.

The Freer You Feel Yourself In The Presence Of Another, The More Free Is He...

Half Talent Is No Talent.

Those Who Speak Always And Those Who Never Speak Are Equally Unfit For Friendship. A Food Proportion Of The Talent Of Listening And Speaking Is The Base Of Social Virtues.

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.

Who Is Respectable When Thinking Himself Alone And Free From Observation Will Be So Before The Eye Of All The World.

Neatness Begets Order; But From Order To Taste There Is The Same Difference As From Taste To Genius, Or From Love To Friendship.

She Neglects Her Heart Who Too Closely Studies Her Glass.

No Communication Or Gift Can Exhaust Genius Or Impoverish Charity.

The Humblest Star Twinkles Most In The Darkest Night.

He Scatters Enjoyment Who Can Enjoy Much.

As You Treat Your Body, So Your House, Your Domestics, Your Enemies, Your Friends - Dress Is A Table Of Your Contents.

Who Has Witnessed One Free And Unconstrained Act Of Yours, Has Witnessed All.

Faces Are As Legible As Books, Only With These Circumstances To Recommend Them To Our Perusal, That They Are Read In Much Less Time, And Are Much Less Likely To Deceive Us.

Be Certain That He Who Has Betrayed Thee Once Will Betray Thee Again.

Who Values Gold Above All, Considers All Else As Trifling.

You May Depend Upon It That He Is A Good Man Whose Intimate Friends Are All Good, And Whose Enemies Are Decidedly Bad.

He, Who Cannot Forgive A Trespass Of Malice To His Enemy, Has Never Yet Tasted The Most Sublime Enjoyment Of Love.

Who Affects Useless Singularities Has Surely A Little Mind.

Decided Ends Are Sure Signs Of A Decided Character.

Who Gives Is Positive; Who Receives Is Negative; Still There Remains An Immense Class Of Mere Passives.

Who Partakes In Another's Joys Is A More Humane Character Than He Who Partakes In His Griefs.

The Policy Of Adapting One's Self To Circumstances Makes All Ways Smooth.

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.

Where Consequence Ceases, There Folly, Restlessness And Misery Begin.

The Loss Of Taste For What Is Right Is Loss Of All Right Taste.

If You Wish To Appear Agreeable In Society, You Must Consent To Be Taught Many Things Which You Already Know.

There Is A Manner Of Forgiveness So Divine That You Are Ready To Embrace The Offender For Having Called It Forth.

It Is One Of My Favorite Thoughts That God Manifests Himself To Men In All The Wise, Good, Humble, Generous, Great, And Magnanimous Men.

True Worth Is As Inevitably Discovered By The Facial Expression, As Its Opposite Is Sure To Be Clearly Represented There. The Human Face Is Nature's Tablet, The Truth Is Certainly Written Thereon.

In The Society Of Ladies, Want Of Sense Is Not So Unpardonable As Want Of Manners.

Certain Trifling Flaws Sit As Disgracefully On A Character Of Elegance As A Ragged Button On A Court Dress.

He Who Freely Praises What He Means To Purchase, And He Who Enumerates The Faults Of What He Means To Sell, May Set Up A Partnership With Honesty.

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.

Dependence On Others

Calmness Of Will Is A Sign Of Grandeur.

Habit Is Altogether Too Arbitrary A Master For Me To Submit To.

All Finery Is A Sign Of Littleness.

God Protects Those He Loves From Worthless Reading.

Action, Looks, Words, Steps, Form The Alphabet By Which You May Spell Character.

Who Begins With Severity, In Judging Of Another, Ends Commonly With Falsehood.

Him, Who Incessantly Laughs In The Street, You May Commonly Hear Grumbling In His Closet.

Kiss The Hand Of Him Who Can Renounce What He Has Publicly Taught When Convicted Of His Error, And Who, With Heartfelt Joy, Embraces Truth, Though With The Sacrifice Of Favourite Opinions.

Who Despises All That Is Despicable Is Made To Be Impressed With All That Is Grand.

Softness Of Smile Indicates Softness Of Character.

Who, Under Pressing Temptations To Lie, Adheres To Truth, Nor To The Profane Betrays Aught Of A Sacred Trust, Is Near The Summit Of Wisdom And Virtue.

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 Colour Through All The Fluctuation Of Things.

As The Interest Of Man, So His God - As His God, So He.

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Borrowed Wit Is The Poorest Wit.

He Surely Is Most In Need Of Another's Patience, Who Has None Of His Own.

Each Particle Of Matter Is An Immensity, Each Leaf A World, Each Insect An Inexplicable Compendium.

Desire Is The Uneasiness A Man Finds In Himself Upon The Absence Of Anything Whose Present Enjoyment Carries The Idea Of Delight With It.

Where There Is Much Pretension, Much Has Been Borrowed; Nature Never Pretends.

The Less You Can Enjoy, The Poorer, The Scantier Yourself - The More You Can Enjoy, The Richer, The More Vigorous.

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He Who Seeks To Imbitter Innocent Pleasure Has A Cancer In His Heart.

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Women Are Proverbially Credulous.

Receive No Satisfaction For Premeditated Impertinence - Forget It, Forgive It - But Keep Him Inexorably At A Distance Who Of∣fered It.

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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.

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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?

To Realize That You Were Mistaken, Is Just The Acknowledgement , That You Are Wiser Today Than You Were Yesterday.

Wishes Run Over In Loquacious Impotence, Will Presses On With Laconic Energy.

Who Makes Quick Use Of The Moment Is A Genius Of Prudence.

Use It Or Lose It

Loudness Is Impotence.

A Beautiful Smile Is To The Female Countenance What The Sunbeam Is To The Landscape; It Embellishes An Inferior Face And Redeems An Ugly One.

The Obstinacy Of The Indolent And Weak Is Less Conquerable Than That Of The Fiery And Bold.

Obstinacy Is The Strength Of The Weak. Firmness Founded Upon Principle, Upon The Truth And Right, Order And Law, Duty And Generosity, Is The Obstinacy Of Sages.

Dress Is An Index Of Your Contents.

He Who Always Prefaces His Tale With Laughter, Is Poised Between Impertinence And Folly.

As Your Enemies And Your Friends, So Are You

The Ambitious Sacrifices All To What He Terms Honor, As The Miser All To Money.

Modesty Is Silent When It Would Be Improper To Speak; The Humble, Without Being Called Upon, Never Recollects To Say Anything Of Himself.

Trust Him Not With Your Secrets, Who, When Left Alone In Your Room, Turns Over Your Papers.

He, Who Boldly Interposes Between A Merciless Censor And His Prey, Is A Man Of Vigor: And He Who, Mildly Wise, Without Wounding, Convinces Him Of His Error, Commands Our Veneration.

A Fop Of Fashion Is The Mercer's Friend, The Tailor's Fool, And His Own Foe.

Say Not You Know Another Entirely Till You Have Divided An Inheritance With Him.

Not Every One Who Has The Gift Of Speech Understands The Value Of Silence.

The Craftiest Trickery Are Too Short And Ragged A Cloak To Cover A Bad Heart.

He Who Can At All Times Sacrifice Pleasure To Duty Approaches Sublimity.

He Who Attempts To Make Others Believe In Means Which He Himself Despises Is A Puffer; He Who Makes Use Of More Means Than He Knows To Be Necessary Is A Quack; And He Who Ascribes To Those Means A Greater Efficacy Than His Own Experience Warrants Is An Impostor.

The More Any One Speaks Of Himself, The Less He Likes To Hear Another Talked Of.

The Most Stormy Ebullitions Of Passion, From Blasphemy To Murder, Are Less Terrific Than One Single Act Of Cool Villainy.

Know In The First Place, That Mankind Agree In Essence, As They Do In Limbs And Senses.

His Calumny Is Not Only The Greatest Benefit A Rogue Can Confer On Us, But The Only Service He Will Perform For Nothing.

Man Is Forever The Same; The Same Under Every Form, In All Situations And Relations That Admit Of Free And Unrestrained Exertion. The Same Regard Which You Have For Yourself, You Have For Others, For Nature, For The Invisible ... Which You Call God.

The More Unharmonious And Inconsistent Your Objects Of Desire, The More Inconsequent, Inconstant, Unquiet, The More Ignoble, Idiotical, And Criminal Yourself.

A Single Spark Of Occasion Discharges The Child Of Passions Into A Thousand Crackers Of Desire.

Avoid The Eye That Discovers With Rapidity The Bad, And Is Slow To See The Good.

Good-humor Is Always A Success.

He Also Has Energy Who Cannot Be Deprived Of It.

Who Is Fatal To Others Is So To Himself.

The Conscience Is More Wise Than Science.

Sensibility Is The Power Of Woman.

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?

The Creditor Whose Appearance Gladdens The Heart Of A Debtor May Hold His Head In Sunbeams And His Foot On Storms.

Truth, Wisdom, Love, Seek Reasons; Malice Only Seeks Causes.

Who Cuts Is Easily Wounded. The Readier You Are To Offend The Sooner You Are Offended.

Joy And Grief Decide Character. What Exalts Prosperity? What Imbitters Grief? What Leaves Us Indifferent? What Interests Us? As The Interest Of Man, So His God - As His God, So He.

A Great Passion Has No Partner.

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 Of Those Qualities. Who Are Those That Never Contradict Themselves? Yet Honesty Never Contradicts Itself: Who Are Those That Always Contradict Themselves? Yet Knavery Is Mere Self-contradiction. Thus The Knowledge Of Man Determines Not The Things Themselves, But Their Proportions, The Quan∣tum Of Congruities And Incongruities.

Humility With Energy Is Often Mistaken For Pride.

Nothing Is So Pregnant As Cruelty; So Multifarious, So Rapid, So Ever Teeming A Mother Is Unknown To The Animal Kingdom; Each Of Her Experiments Provokes Another And Refines Upon The Last; Though Always Progressive, Yet Always Remote From The End.

Who Knows Whence He Comes, Where He Is, And Whither He Tends, He, And He Alone, Is Wise.

He Can Feel No Little Wants Who Is In Pursuit Of Grandeur.

Thousands Are Hated, While None Are Loved Without A Real Cause

Malice Is Poisoned By Her Own Venom.

The Cruelty Of The Effeminate Is More Dreadful Than That Or The Hardy.

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.

The Immoderate Cannot Laugh Moderately.

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 Who Prorogues The Honesty Of Today Till To-morrow Will Probably Prorogue His To-morrows To Eternity.

The More Uniform A Man's Voice, Step, Manner Of Conversation, Handwriting--the More Quiet, Uniform, Settled, His Actions, His Character.

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.

He Who, When Called Upon To Speak A Disagreeable Truth, Tells It Boldly And Has Done Is Both Bolder And Milder Than He Who Nibbles In A Low Voice And Never Ceases Nibbling.

Avoid Him Who From Mere Curiosity Asks Three Questions Running About A Thing That Cannot Interest Him.

Just So Far As We Are Pleased At Finding Faults, Are We Displeased At Finding Perfection.

Happy The Heart To Whom God Has Given Enough Strength And Courage To Suffer For Him, To Find Happiness In Simplicity And The Happiness Of Others.

There Are Three Classes Of Men; The Retrograde, The Stationary And The Progressive.

He Who Can Conceal His Joys, Is Greater Than He Who Can Hide His Griefs

He Who Sedulously Attends, Pointedly Asks, Calmly Speaks, Coolly Answers And Ceases When He Has No More To Say Is In Possession Of Some Of The Best Requisites Of Man

He Who Goes Round About In His Requests Wants Commonly More Than He Chooses To Appear To Want.

As Man's Love Or Hatred, So He. Love And Hatred Exist Only Personified.

Hatred And Love

Existence Is Self-enjoyment, By Means Of Some Object Distinct From Ourselves.

The Public Seldom Forgive Twice.

The Wrath That On Conviction Subsides Into Mildness, Is The Wrath Of A Generous Mind.

The Man Who Loves With His Whole Heart Truth Will Love Still More He Who Suffers For Truth.

He Knows Not How To Speak Who Cannot Be Silent; Still Less How To Act With Vigour And Decision. - Who Hastens To The End Is Silent: Loudness Is Impotence.

Many Very Intelligent Agreeable Persons Have Warts On The Forehead, Not Brown, Nor Very Large, Between The Eyebrows, Which Have Nothing In Them Offensive Or Disgusting. - But A Large Brown Wart On The Upper Lip, Especially When It Is Bristly, Will Be Found In No Person Who Is Not Defective In Something Essential, Or At Least Remarkable For Some Conspicuous Failing.

Conscience Is Wiser Than Science.

Trust Him With None Of Thy Individualities Who Is, Or Pretends To Be, Two Things At Once.

It Is Possible That A Wise And Good Man May Be Prevailed On To Game; But It Is Impossi∣ble That A Professed Gamester Should Be A Wise And Good Man.

He Who Comes From The Kitchen, Smells Of Its Smoke; And He Who Adheres To A Sect, Has Something Of Its Cant; The College Air Pursues The Student; And Dry Inhumanity Him Who Herds With Literary Pedants.

He Who, Silent, Loves To Be With Us - He Who Loves Us In Our Silence - Has Touched One Of The Keys That Ravish Hearts.

The Generous Person Is Always Just, And The Just Who Is Always Generous May, Unannounced, Approach The Throne Of Heaven.

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.

Be Neither Too Early In The Fashion, Nor Too Long Out Of It; Nor At Any Time In The Extremes Of It.

Trust Him Little Who Praise All, Him Less Who Censures All And Him Least Who Is Indifferent About All.

Where Pride Begins, Love Ceases.

Strange That Cowards Cannot See That Their Greatest Safety Lies In Dauntless Courage.

She Whom Smiles And Tears Make Equally Lovely May Command All Hearts.

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.

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 Knows Very Little Of Mankind Who Expects, By Any Facts Or Reasoning, To Convince A Determined Party Man.

A Gift--its Kind, Its Value And Appearance; The Silence Or The Pomp That Attends It; The Style In Which It Reaches You--may Decide The Dignity Or Vulgarity Of The Giver.

If You See One Cold And Vehement At The Same Time, Set Him Down For A Fanatic.

He Who Purposely Cheats His Friend Would Cheat His God.

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.

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.

The Procrastinator Is Not Only Indolent And Weak, But Commonly, False, Too; Most Of The Weak Are False.

Procrastination

Who Forces Himself On Others Is To Himself A Load. Impetuous Curiosity Is Empty And Inconstant. Prying Intrusion May Be Suspected Of Whatever Is Little.

Take Here The Grand Secret; If Not Of Pleasing All, Yet Of Displeasing None, And Court Mediocrity, Avoid Originality, And Sacrifice To Fashion.

The Worst Of Faces Still Is Human.

When You Doubt Between Words, Use The Plainest, The Commonest, The Most Idiomatic. Eschew Fine Words As You Would Rouge; Love Simple Ones As You Would The Native Roses On Your Cheek.

The Smiles That Encourage Severity Of Judgment Hide Malice And Insincerity.

How Few Our Real Wants, And How Vast Our Imaginary Ones!

Who Has A Daring Eye Tell Downright Truths And Downright Lies.

The Proverbial Wisdom Of The Populace In The Street, On The Roads, And In The Markets Instructs The Ear Of Him Who Studies Man More Fully Than A Thousand Rules Ostentatiously Displayed.

Be Not The Fourth Friend Of Him Who Had Three Before And Lost Them.

The Jealous Are Possessed By A Mad Devil And A Dull Spirit At The Same Time.

Let The Degree Of Egotism Be The Measure Of Confidence.

Whenever A Man Undergoes A Considerable Change, In Consequence Of Being Observed By Others, Whenever He Assumes Another Gait, Another Language, Than What He Had Before He Thought Himself Observed, Be Advised To Guard Yourself Against Him.

Close Thine Ear Against Him That Shall Open His Mouth Secretly Against Another. If Thou Receivest Not His Words, They Fly Back And Wound The Reporter. If Thou Dost Receive Them, They Fly Forward And Wound The Receiver.

Words Are The Wings Of Actions.

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