Quotes from Jean Paul

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

Passion makes the best observations and the sorriest conclusions.

The timid are afraid before the danger, the cowardly while in danger, and the courageous after danger.

Poverty is the only load which is the heavier the more loved ones there are to assist in bearing it.

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.

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

Music is moonlight in the gloomy night of life.

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

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

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

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.

Gray hairs seem to my fancy like the soft light of the moon, silvering over the evening of life.

A man never discloses his own character so clearly as when he describes anothers.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A loving maiden grows unconsciously more bold.

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

A timid person is frightened before a danger, a coward during the time, and a courageous person afterward.

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