Jean Paul Quotes

There is no love apart from the deeds of love; no potentiality of love other than that which is manifested in loving.

He is always becoming, and if it were not for the contingency of death, he would never end.

Who can exhaust a man? Who knows a man's resources?

The real nature of the present revealed itself: it was what exists, all that was not present did not exist.

It is too early to love. We will buy the right to do so by shedding blood.

There is no book of mine that I reject. That does not mean that I find them good.

I do not give a damn about the dead. They died for the [Communist] Party and the Party can decide what it wants. I practice a live man's politics, for the living.

Life is a useless passion.

I was escaping from Nature and at last becoming myself, that Other whom I was aspiring to be in the eyes of others.

I was a neophyte in another world [in 1954].

Some men are born committed to action: they do not have a choice, they have been thrown on a path, at the end of that path, an act awaits them, their act.

There is no human nature, since there is no god to conceive it.

The end we aim at must be known, before the way can be made.

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

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.

Education should bring to light the ideal of the individual.

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

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

The look of a king is itself a deed.

Remembrances last longer than present realities.

A loving maiden grows unconsciously more bold.

It is not great, but little good-haps that make up happiness.

People will not bear it when advice is violently given, even if it is well founded. Hearts are flowers; they remain open to the softly falling dew, but shut up in the violent downpour of rain.

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

To show the relativity of what's good taste and what's not is something I like to play with.

Man is the being whose project it is to be God.

Yes, I am so free. And what a superb absence is my soul.

Everything is gratuitous, this garden, this city and myself. When you suddenly realize it, it makes you feel sick and everything begins to drift . . . that's nausea.

I am not virtuous. Our sons will be if we shed enough blood to give them the right to be.

If a Jew is fascinated by Christians it is not because of their virtues, which he values little, but because they represent anonymity, humanity without race.

She smiled and said with an ecstatic air: "It shines like a little diamond", "What does?" "This moment. It is round, it hangs in empty space like a little diamond; I am eternal.

This then is the age of reason.

For common minds have an ugly ability to perceive in the deepest and richest saying nothing but their own everyday opinion.

A pale reflection of myself wavers in my consciousness...and suddenly the “I” pales, pales, and fades out.

Night is falling: at dusk, you must have good eyesight to be able to tell the Good Lord from the Devil.

It is certain that we cannot escape anguish, for we are anguish.

Be quiet! Anyone can spit in my face, and call me a criminal and a prostitute. But no one has the right to judge my remorse.

What's done at night belongs to the night. In the daytime you don't talk about it.

emotion is first of all and in principle an accident

Age doesn't matter, unless your cheese.

As a man grows older it is harder and harder to frighten him.

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.

Never write on a subject without first having read yourself full on it; and never read on a subject till you have thought yourself hungry on it.

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

For the Infinite has sowed his name in the heavens in burning stars, but on the earth He has sowed his name in tender flowers.

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

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

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?

For sleep, riches and health to be truly enjoyed and gratefully appreciated, they must be interrupted so the person can see that not having them is not as good as having them.

The heart needs not for its heaven much space, nor many stars therein, if only the star of love has arisen.