Jean Paul Quotes - Page 3

Passion makes the best observations and the sorriest conclusions.

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

Romanticism is beauty without bounds-the beautiful infinite.

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

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."

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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?

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

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.

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.

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.

The German language is the organ among the languages.