Jean Paul quotes

Jean Paul was a German Romantic writer and humorist renowned for his imaginative and satirical novels. His works are characterized by their wit, originality, and deep psychological insight. He influenced many later writers and remains an important figure in German literature. Here are 72 of his quotes:

Recollection is the only paradise from which we cannot be turned out. (Jean Paul)
Music is moonlight in the gloomy night of life. View quote
Jean Paul
In women everything is heart, even the head. View quote
Jean Paul
The miracle on earth are the laws of heaven. View quote
Jean Paul
Passion makes the best observations and the sorriest conclusions. View quote
Jean Paul
The last, best fruit that comes to perfection, even in the kindliest soul, is tenderness toward the hard; forbearance toward the unforbearing; warmth of heart toward the cold; and philanthropy toward the misanthropic. View quote
Jean Paul
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 cages of birds when we wish to teach them to sing? View quote
Jean Paul
The darkness of death is like the evening twilight; it makes all objects appear more lovely to the dying. View quote
Jean Paul
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. View quote
Jean Paul
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. View quote
Jean Paul
Sorrows are like thunderclouds, in the distance they look black, over our heads scarcely gray. (Jean Paul)
Our birthdays are feathers in the broad wing of time. View quote
Jean Paul
You prove your worth with your actions, not with your mouth. View quote
Jean Paul
God is an unutterable sigh, planted in the depths of the soul. View quote
Jean Paul
There are souls in this world which have the gift of finding joy everywhere and of leaving it behind them when they go. View quote
Jean Paul
Never part without loving words to think of during your absence. It may be that you will not meet again in this life. View quote
Jean Paul
Gray hairs seem to my fancy like the soft light of the moon, silvering over the evening of life. View quote
Jean Paul
Because the heart beats under a covering of hair, of fur, feathers, or wings, it is, for that reason, to be of no account? View quote
Jean Paul
The grandest of heroic deeds are those which are performed within four walls and in domestic privacy. View quote
Jean Paul
When Antipater demanded fifty children as hostages from the Spartans, they offered him, in their stead, a hundred men of distinction; unlike ordinary educators, who precisely reverse the offering. The Spartans thought rightly and nobly. In the world of childhood all posterity stands before us, upon which we, like Moses upon the promised land, may only gaze, but not enter. View quote
Jean Paul
The past and future are veiled; but the past wears the widow's veil; the future, the virgin's. (Jean Paul)
How calmly may we commit ourselves to the hands of Him who bears up the world! View quote
Jean Paul
No one is so much alone in the universe as a denier of God. With an orphaned heart, which has lost the greatest of fathers, he stands mourning by the immeasurable corpse of nature, no longer moved and sustained by the Spirit of the universe. View quote
Jean Paul
The life of Christ concerns Him who, being the holiest among the mighty, and the mightiest among the holy, lifted with His pierced hand empires off their hinges, and turned the stream of centuries out of its channel, and still governs the ages. View quote
Jean Paul
Suffering is my gain; I bow To my Heavenly Father's will, And receive it hushed and still; Suffering is my worship now. View quote
Jean Paul