Quotes from Jean Paul Richter

Our birthdays are feathers in the broad wing of time.

Do not wait for extraordinary situations to do good; try to use ordinary situations.

Never part without loving words to think of during your absence. It may be that you will not meet again in this life.

The guardian angels of life fly so high as to be beyond our sight, but they are always looking down upon us.

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

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

Anger wishes that all mankind had only one neck; love, that it had only one heart; grief, two tear-glands; and pride, two bent knees.

Our memories are the only paradise from which we can never be expelled.

There is a joy in sorrow which none but a mourner can know.

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

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

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.

God is an unutterable sigh, planted in the depths of the soul.

Music is moonlight in the gloomy night of life.

Art is indeed not the bread but the wine of life.

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 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.

Do not wait for extraordinary circumstances to do good; try to use ordinary situations.

Never part without loving words to think of during your absence. It may be that you will not meet again in life.

Only actions give life strength; only moderation gives it a charm.

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

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

The test of pleasure is the memory it leaves behind. (Die Probe Eines Genusses ist Seine Erinnerung.)

It is easy to flatter; it is harder to praise.