Jean Paul Quotes

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

Education should bring to light the ideal of the individual.

He thought of the mouldering child, which laid its withered thin arms around his soul, as if it were his own, and to whom Death had given as much as a god gave to Endymion, — sleep, eternal youth, and immortality.

The miracle on earth are the laws of heaven.

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

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

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

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.

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.

Paradise is always where love dwells.

In women everything is heart, even the head.

For the Infinite has sowed his name in the heavens in burning stars, but on the earth He has sowed his name in tender flowers.

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.

Age doesn't matter, unless your cheese.

Nothing is more beautiful than cheerfulness in an old face.

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

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

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

Each departed friend is a magnet that attracts us to the next world.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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.

Never write on a subject without first having read yourself full on it; and never read on a subject till you have thought yourself hungry on it.

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

Despair is the only genuine atheism.

Remembrances last longer than present realities.

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

A scholar knows no boredom.

It is not great, but little good-haps that make up happiness.

In science the new is an advance; but in morals, as contradicting our inner ideals and historic idols, it is ever a retrogression.

Without God there is for mankind no purpose, no goal, no hope, only a wavering future, an eternal dread of every darkness.

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

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

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.

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.

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?

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

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

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.

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

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."

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