Top 122 Quotes & Sayings by Jean Paul - Page 2

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.

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

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.

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."

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

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

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

The look of a king is itself a deed.

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.

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

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

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.

A woman who could always love would never grow old; and the love of mother and wife would often give or preserve many charms if it were not too often combined with parental and conjugal anger. There remains in the face of women who are naturally serene and peaceful, and of those rendered so by religion, an after-spring, and later an after-summer, the reflex of their most beautiful bloom.

Sleep, riches, and health, to be truly enjoyed, must be interrupted.

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

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.

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.

Passion makes the best observations and the sorriest conclusions.

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

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.

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.

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

Repetition is the mother of education.

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

What a father says to his children is not heard by the world, but it will be heard by posterity.

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

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

There are so many tender and holy emotions flying about in our inward world, which, like angels, can never assume the body of an outward act; so many rich and lovely flowers spring up which bear no seed, that it is a happiness poetry was invented, which receives into its limbs all these incorporeal spirits, and the perfume of all these flowers.

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

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

Education should bring to light the ideal of the individual.

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

A variety of nothing is superior to a monotony of something.

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

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.

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

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

For no one does life drag more disagreeably than for those who try to speed it up.

Individuality is to be preserved and respected everywhere, as the root of everything good.

Remembrances last longer than present realities.

Despair is the only genuine atheism.

A loving maiden grows unconsciously more bold.

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

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.

A scholar knows no boredom.

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.

In women everything is heart, even the head.

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

Nothing is more beautiful than cheerfulness in an old face.

A sky full of silent suns.

Romanticism is beauty without bounds-the beautiful infinite.

It is easier and handier for men to flatter than to praise.

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

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?

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

The happiness of life consists, like the day, not in single flashes (of light), but in one continuous mild serenity. The most beautiful period of the heart's existence is in this calm equable light, even although it be only moonshine or twilight. Now the mind alone can obtain for us this heavenly cheerfulness and peace.