Nations and men are only the best when they are the gladdest, and deserve heaven when they enjoy it.

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

Passion makes the best observations and the sorriest conclusions.

Music is moonlight in the gloomy night of life.

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.

No heroine can create a hero through love of one, but she can give birth to one

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."