"Him, who incessantly laughs in the street, you may commonly hear grumbling in his closet"
About this Quote
Then he pivots to “grumbling in his closet,” and the architecture matters. The closet is not only privacy; it’s a moral interior, a space where performance drops and the self becomes audible. The phrase “you may commonly hear” turns the reader into a witness, even an accomplice, inviting a knowing skepticism toward conspicuous happiness. It’s less a diagnosis than a warning about easy readings of people: what looks like joy may be defense, what looks like confidence may be management.
As an 18th-century theologian, Lavater is writing in a culture that prized outward propriety while obsessing over inward sincerity. His broader project, tied to physiognomy and character-reading, tries to make the invisible legible; here he admits the limits of surfaces. The subtext is pastoral and slightly disciplinary: spiritual health isn’t measured by public geniality. If you’re always laughing, he implies, you may be avoiding the harder work of confronting what’s actually gnawing at you when the door closes.
Quote Details
| Topic | Wisdom |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Lavater, Johann Kaspar. (2026, January 18). Him, who incessantly laughs in the street, you may commonly hear grumbling in his closet. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/him-who-incessantly-laughs-in-the-street-you-may-22688/
Chicago Style
Lavater, Johann Kaspar. "Him, who incessantly laughs in the street, you may commonly hear grumbling in his closet." FixQuotes. January 18, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/him-who-incessantly-laughs-in-the-street-you-may-22688/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"Him, who incessantly laughs in the street, you may commonly hear grumbling in his closet." FixQuotes, 18 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/him-who-incessantly-laughs-in-the-street-you-may-22688/. Accessed 19 Feb. 2026.















