Jean-Jacques Rousseau Quotes
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Heroes are not known by the loftiness of their carriage; the greatest braggarts are generally the merest cowards.
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Whoever refuses to obey the general will will be forced to do so by the entire body; this means merely that he will be forced to be free.
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An intelligent being, is the active principle of all things. One must have renounced all common sense to doubt it, and it is a waste of time to try to prove such self evident truth.
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But remain the teacher of the young teachers. Advise and direct us, and we will be ready to learn. I will have need of you as long as I live.
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My liveliest delight was in having conquered myself.
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Ought to have a universal compulsory force to move and arrange each part in the manner best suited to the whole. Just as nature gives each man an absolute power over all his members, the social compact gives the body politic an absolute power over all its members." "We grant that each person alienates, by the social compact, only that portion of his power, his goods, and liberty whose use is of consequence to the community; but we must also grant that only the sovereign is the judge of what is of consequence.
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Gratitude is a duty which ought to be paid, but which none have a right to expect.
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The science of government is only a science of combinations, of applications, and of exceptions, according to times, places and circumstances.
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Man was born free, and he is everywhere in chains. Those who think themselves the masters of others are indeed greater slaves than they.
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Or, rather, let us be more simple and less vain.
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The English are predisposed to pride, the French to vanity.
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A feeble body weakens the mind.
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For it is in our nature to endure patiently the decrees of fate, but not the ill-will of others.
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At sixteen, the adolescent knows about suffering because he himself has suffered, but he barely knows that other beings also suffer.
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There is a period of life when we go back as we advance. [Fr., Il est un terme de la vie au-dela duquel en retrograde en avancant.]
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The animals you eat are not those who devour others; you do not eat the carnivorous beasts, you take them as your pattern. You only hunger for the sweet and gentle creatures which harm no one, which follow you, serve you, and are devoured by you as the reward of their service.
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One thinks himself the master of others, and still remains a greater slave than they.
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No one is happy unless he respects himself.
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Let the trumpet of the day of judgment sound when it will, I shall appear with this book in my hand before the Sovereign Judge, and cry with a loud voice, This is my work, there were my thoughts, and thus was I. I have freely told both the good and the bad, have hid nothing wicked, added nothing good.
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We do not know what really good or bad fortune is.
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The truths of the Scriptures are so marked and inimitable, that the inventor would be more of a miraculous character than the hero.
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Temperance and labor are the two best physicians of man; labor sharpens the appetite, and temperance prevents from indulging to excess
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Once you teach people to say what they do not understand, it is easy enough to get them to say anything you like. v One could wish no easier death than that of Socrates, calmly discussing philosophy with his friends; one could fear nothing worse than that of Jesus, dying in torment, among the insults, the mockery, the curses of the whole nation. In the midst of these terrible sufferings, Jesus prays for his cruel murderers. Yes, if the life and death of Socrates are those of a philosopher, the life and death of Christ are those of a God.
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Definitions would be good things if we did not use words to make them.