Inspirational Quotations

Inspirational Quotes by Jean Paul (German Novelist)

Jean Paul (1763–1825,) born Johann Paul Friedrich Richter, was a German Romantic writer known for humorous and sentimental novels. His works bridged Weimar Classicism and early Romanticism, blending satire, philosophy, and psychological depth.

Born in Wunsiedel, Germany, he studied theology at the University of Leipzig but soon abandoned it for literature. His early satirical works, Grönländische Prozesse (1783; The Greenland Lawsuits, 1970) and Auswahl aus des Teufels Papieren (1789; Selections from the Devil’s Papers, 1983,) were unsuccessful. A personal crisis in 1790 led him to adopt a more sentimental style, marking a turning point in his career.

His breakthrough came with Die unsichtbare Loge (1793; The Invisible Lodge, 1841,) followed by Hesperus (1795; Hesperus, or Forty-Five Dog-Post-Days, 1865,) which established his reputation. Other notable works include Blumen-, Frucht-, und Dornenstücke (1796; Flower, Fruit, and Thorn Pieces, 1897,) Titan (1800–03; Titan, 1913,) and Flegeljahre (1804–05; Walt and Vult, 1862.)

Though overshadowed by Goethe and Schiller, Jean Paul’s writing was admired for its wit, emotional depth, and philosophical reflections. His influence endured, particularly in German literature and philosophy.

Günter de Bruyn’s Jean Paul: A Biography (1975) examines his literary contributions, while Thomas Saine’s Jean Paul’s Fiction and Romantic Irony (1992) provides an in-depth analysis of his style and themes.

More: Wikipedia READ: Works by Jean Paul

Love one human being purely and warmly, and you will love all.—The heart in this heaven, like the sun in its course, sees nothing, from the dewdrop to the ocean, but a mirror which it brightens, and warms, and fills.
Jean Paul
Topics: Love

The tear of joy is a pearl of the first water; the mourning tear, only of the second.
Jean Paul
Topics: Tears

O, banish the tears of children! Continual rains upon the blossoms are hurtful.
Jean Paul
Topics: Tears

A timid person is frightened before a danger; a coward during the time; and a courageous person afterward.
Jean Paul
Topics: Danger, Courage, Bravery

There is a joy in sorrow which none but a mourner can know.
Jean Paul
Topics: Sorrow

The only praiseworthy indifference is an acquired one; we must feel as well as control our passions.
Jean Paul
Topics: Passion

A small sorrow distracts; a great one makes us collected.
Jean Paul
Topics: Sorrow

Laughing cheerfulness throws the light of day on all the paths of life; the evil fog of gloom hovers in the distance; sorrow is more confusing and distracting than so-called giddiness.
Jean Paul
Topics: Laughter

Cares are often more difficult to throw off than sorrows; the latter die with time, the former grow.
Jean Paul
Topics: Sadness, Sorrow

Passion makes the best observations and the sorriest conclusions.
Jean Paul
Topics: Passion

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.
Jean Paul
Topics: Anger

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?
Jean Paul
Topics: Sorrow

Memory, wit, fancy, acuteness, cannot grow young again in old age; but the heart can.
Jean Paul
Topics: Heart

Joy descends gently upon us like the evening dew, and does not patter down like a hailstorm.
Jean Paul
Topics: Happiness

No one is more profoundly sad than he who laughs too much.
Jean Paul
Topics: Laughter, Awareness

Criticism often takes from the tree caterpillars and blossoms together.
Jean Paul
Topics: Criticism

The wish falls often, warm upon my heart, that I may learn nothing here that I cannot continue in the other world; that I may do nothing here but deeds that will bear fruit in heaven.
Jean Paul
Topics: Eternity

More joyful eyes look at the setting, than at the rising sun.—Burdens are laid down by the poor, whom the sun consoles more than the rich.—I yearn toward him when he sets, not when he rises.
Jean Paul

All loving emotions, like plants, shoot up most rapidly in the tempestuous atmosphere of life.
Jean Paul

Sorrows are like thunderclouds – in the distance they look black, over our heads scarcely gray.
Jean Paul
Topics: Sadness, Sorrow

The Turks carefully collect every scrap of paper that comes in their way, because the name of God may be written thereon.
Jean Paul

With the people of courts the tongue is the artery of their withered life, the spiral spring and flag-feather of their souls.
Jean Paul

Unhappy is the man for whom his own mother has not made all other mothers venerable.
Jean Paul
Topics: Mother

Time is the chrysalis of eternity.
Jean Paul
Topics: Time

I would rather dwell in the dim fog of superstition, than in air rarified to nothing by the air-pump of unbelief; in which the panting breast expires, vainly and convulsively gasping for breath.
Jean Paul

No author can be as moral as his work and no preacher as pious as his sermons.
Jean Paul
Topics: Morals, Morality

When those we have loved have long vanished from the earth, then will the beloved voice come back and bring with it all our old tears and the disconsolate heart that sheds them.
Jean Paul

Sleep, the antechamber of the grave.
Jean Paul
Topics: Sleep

How calmly may we commit ourselves to the hands of him who bears up the world.
Jean Paul
Topics: Trust

As winter strips the leaves from around us, so that we may see the distant regions they formerly concealed, so old age takes away our enjoyments only to enlarge the prospect of the coming eternity.
Jean Paul
Topics: Age, Aging

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