Jean Paul Quotations

God is an unutterable sigh, planted in the depths of the soul.

Gray hairs seem to my fancy like the soft light of the moon, silvering over the evening of life.

The guardian angels of life sometimes fly so high as to be beyond our sight, but they are always looking down upon us.

Every friend is to the other a sun, and a sunflower also. He attracts and follows.

The miracle on earth are the laws of heaven.

For sleep, riches and health to be truly enjoyed, they must be interrupted.

Because the heart beats under a covering of hair, of fur, feathers, or wings, it is, for that reason, to be of no account?

Joy descends gently upon us like the evening dew, and does not patter down like a hailstorm.

Every man regards his own life as the New Year's Eve of time.

Every man has a rainy corner of his life whence comes foul weather which follows him.

Do not wait for extraordinary circumstances to do good action; try to use ordinary situations.

Sorrows are like thunderclouds, in the distance they look black, over our heads scarcely gray.

The more sand that has escaped from the hourglass of our life, the clearer we should see through it.

The conscience of children is formed by the influences that surround them; their notions of good and evil are the result of the moral atmosphere they breathe.

Our birthdays are feathers in the broad wing of time.

The darkness of death is like the evening twilight; it makes all objects appear more lovely to the dying.

Music is moonlight in the gloomy night of life.

Strong characters are brought out by change of situation, and gentle ones by permanence.

Courage consists not in blindly overlooking danger, but in seeing it, and conquering it.

There are souls in this world which have the gift of finding joy everywhere and of leaving it behind them when they go.

You prove your worth with your actions, not with your mouth.

Humanity is never so beautiful as when praying for forgiveness, or else forgiving another.

What makes old age so sad is not that our joys but our hopes cease.

Sorrows gather around great souls as storms do around mountains; but, like them, they break the storm and purify the air of the plain beneath them.

A man never discloses his own character so clearly as when he describes anothers.

Like a morning dream, life becomes more and more bright the longer we live, and the reason of everything appears more clear. What has puzzled us before seems less mysterious, and the crooked paths look straighter as we approach the end.

A timid person is frightened before a danger, a coward during the time, and a courageous person afterward.

We learn our virtues from our friends who love us; our faults from the enemy who hates us. We cannot easily discover our real character from a friend. He is a mirror, on which the warmth of our breath impedes the clearness of the reflection.

Death gives us sleep, eternal youth, and immortality.

Recollection is the only paradise from which we cannot be turned out.

There are souls which fall from heaven like flowers, but ere they bloom are crushed under the foul tread of some brutal hoof.

The words that a father speaks to his children in the privacy of home are not heard by the world, but, as in whispering galleries, they are clearly heard at the end, and by posterity.

Only actions give life strength; only moderation gives it charm.

Men, like bullets, go farthest when they are smoothest.

Whenever, at a party, I have been in the mood to study fools, I have always looked for a great beauty: they always gather round her like flies around a fruit stall.

Never write on a subject until you have read yourself full of it.

As winter strips the leaves from around us, so that we may see the distant regions they formerly concealed, so old age takes away our enjoyments only to enlarge the prospect of the coming eternity.

Never part without loving words to think of during your absence. It may be that you will not meet again in this life.

Age does not matter if the matter does not age.

There is a joy in sorrow which none but a mourner can know.

Beauty attracts us men; but if, like an armed magnet it is pointed, beside, with gold and silver, it attracts with tenfold power.

Good actions ennoble us, we are the sons of our own deeds.

It is simpler and easier to flatter people than to praise them.

Two aged men, that had been foes for life, Met by a grave, and wept - and in those tears They washed away the memory of their strife; Then wept again the loss of all those years.

Variety of mere nothings gives more pleasure than uniformity of something.

I have made as much out of myself as could be made of the stuff, and no man should require more.

Poverty is the only load which is the heavier the more loved ones there are to assist in bearing it.

Woman and men of retiring timidity are cowardly only in dangers which affect themselves, but the first to rescue when others are in danger.

No one is more profoundly sad as one who laughs too much.

Idleness is many gathered miseries in one name.

Cares are often more difficult to throw off than sorrows; the latter die with time, the former grow.

Brevity is the body and soul of wit.

Other exercises develop single powers and muscles, but dancing embellishes, exercises, and equalizes all the muscles at once.

No rest is worth anything except the rest that is earned.

In youth one has tears without grief, in old age grief without tears.

Like the greatest virtue and the worst dogs, the fiercest hatred is silent.

The last, best fruit which comes to late perfection, even in the kindliest soul, is tenderness toward the hard, forbearance toward the unforbearing, warmth of heart toward the cold, philanthropy toward the misanthropic.

Fancy rules over two thirds of the universe, the past, and future, while reality is confined to the present

The burden of suffering seems a tombstone hung about our necks, while in reality it is only the weight which is necessary to keep down the diver while he is hunting for pearls.

In later life, as in earlier, only a few persons influence the formation of our character; the multitude pass us by like a distant army. One friend, one teacher, one beloved, one club, one dining table, one work table are the means by which one's nation and the spirit of one's nation affect the individual.

The heart needs not for its heaven much space, nor many stars therein, if only the star of love has arisen.

I would rather dwell in the dim fog of superstition than in air rarefied to nothing by the air-pump of unbelief-in which the panting breast expires, vainly and convulsively gasping for breath.

It has been jestingly said that the works of John Paul Richter are almost unintelligible to any but the Germans, and even to some of them. A worthy German, just before Richter's death, edited a complete edition of his works, in which one particular passage fairly puzzled him. Determined to have it explained at the source, he went to John Paul himself. The author's reply was very characteristic: "My good friend, when I wrote that passage, God and I knew what it meant; it is possible that God knows it still; but as for me, I have totally forgotten."

Universal love is a glove without fingers, which fits all bands alike and none closely; but true affection is like a glove with fingers, which fits one hand only, and sits close to that one.

If self-knowledge is the road to virtue, so is virtue still more the road to self-knowledge.

A scholar knows no boredom.

With so many thousand joys, is it not black ingratitude to call the world a place of sorrow and torment?

Education should bring to light the ideal of the individual.

How narrow our souls become when absorbed in any present good or ill! It is only the thought of the future that makes them great.

As a man grows older it is harder and harder to frighten him.

The gymnasium of running, walking on stilts, climbing, etc. stells and makes hardy single powers and muscles, but dancing, like a corporeal poesy, embellishes, exercises, and equalizes all the muscles at once.

Flowers never emit so sweet and strong a fragrance as before a storm. When a storm approaches thee, be as fragrant as a sweet-smelling flower.

A loving maiden grows unconsciously more bold.

Man's feelings are always purest and most glowing in the hour of meeting and of farewell.

Love lessens woman's delicacy and increases man's.

Passion makes the best observations and the sorriest conclusions.

Humankind's chief fault is that they have so many small ones.

Ah! The seasons of love roll not backward but onward, downward forever.

Only deeds give strength to life, only moderation gives it charm.

Man has here two and a half minutes-one to smile, one to sigh, and a half to love: for in the midst of this minute he dies.

The romance of life begins and ends with two blank pages. Age and extreme old age.

Has it never occurred to us, when surrounded by sorrows, that they may be sent to us only for our instruction, as we darken the eyes of birds when we wish them to sing?

For sleep, riches and health to be truly enjoyed and gratefully appreciated, they must be interrupted so the person can see that not having them is not as good as having them.

Despair is the only genuine atheism.

The end we aim at must be known, before the way can be made.

Joys are our wings, sorrows our spurs.

The Infinate has sowed His name in the heavens in burning stars, but on earth He has sowed His name in tender flowers.

In women everything is heart, even the head.

It is easy to flatter; it is harder to praise.

What Cicero said of men-that they are like wines, age souring the bad, and bettering the good-we can say of misfortune, that it has the same effect upon them.

People will not bear it when advice is violently given, even if it is well founded. Hearts are flowers; they remain open to the softly falling dew, but shut up in the violent downpour of rain.

A sky full of silent suns.

Jesus is the purest among the mighty, and the mightiest among the pure, who, with his pierced hand has raised empires from their foundations, turned the stream of history from its old channel, and still continues to rule and guide the ages

Laughing cheerfulness throws the light of day on all the paths of life.

See, indeed, that your daughter is thoroughly grounded and experienced in household duties; but take care, through religion and poetry, to keep her heart open to heaven.

The purer the golden vessel, the more readily is it bent; the higher worth of woman is sooner lost than that of man.

feelings of man are always pure and the brightest to the meeting time and Farewell.

Memory, wit, fancy, acuteness, cannot grow young again in old age, but the heart can.

Age doesn't matter, unless your cheese.

It is not the end of joy that makes old age so sad, but the end of hope.