Jean-Jacques Rousseau Quotes
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I love idleness. I love to busy myself about trifles, to begin a hundred things and not finish one of them, to come and go as my fancy bids me, to change my plan every moment, to follow a fly in all its circlings, to try and uproot a rock to see what is underneath, eagerly to begin a ten-years' task to give it up after ten minutes: in short, to fritter away the whole day inconsequentially and incoherently, and to follow nothing but the whim of the moment.
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The members of a body-politic call it "the state" when it is passive, "the sovereign" when it is active, and a "power" when they compare it with others of its kind. Collectively they use the title "people," and they refer to one another individually as "citizens" when speaking of their participation in the authority of the sovereign, and as "subjects" when speaking of their subordination to the laws of the state.
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As evening approached, I came down from the heights of the island, and I liked then to go and sit on the shingle in some secluded spot by the lake; there the noise of the waves and the movement of the water, taking hold of my senses and driving all other agitation from my soul, would plunge me into delicious reverie in which night often stole upon me unawares.
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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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Plant and your spouse plants with you; weed and you weed alone.
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A man says what he knows, a woman says what will please.
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Our greatest evil flows from ourselves.
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This dog, which, although no beauty, was of an uncommon breed, I had made my friend and companion; and it certainly deserved the name better than the majority of those who had assumed it.
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Definitions would be good things if we did not use words to make them.
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Happiness: a good bank account, a good cook, and a good digestion.
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I bold it impossible, that the great monarchies of Europe can subsist much longer; they all affect magnificence and splendor.
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The empire of woman is an empire of softness, of address, of complacency. Her commands are caresses, her menaces are tears.
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Truth is an homage that the good man pays to his own dignity.
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Base souls have no faith in great individuals.
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Whatever may be our natural talents, the art of writing is not acquired all at once.
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The strength of the people is effective only if it is concentrated; it evaporates and is lost when it is dispersed, just as gunpowder scattered on the ground ignites only grain by grain.
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The majesty of the Scriptures strikes me with admiration, as the purity of the gospel has its influence on my heart.
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Money is the seed of money, and the first guinea is sometimes more difficult to acquire than the second million.
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Everything made by man may be destroyed by man; there are no ineffaceable characters except those engraved by nature; and nature makes neither princes nor rich men nor great lords.
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It is believed that physiognomy is only a simple development of the features already marked out by nature. It is my opinion, however, that in addition to this development, the features come insensibly to be formed and assume their shape from the frequent and habitual expression of certain affections of the soul. These affections are marked on the countenance; nothing is more certain than this; and when they turn into habits, they must leave on it durable impressions.
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Anticipation and Hope are born twins.
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The writings of women are always cold and pretty like themselves. There is as much wit as you may desire, but never any soul.
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The bigger a state becomes the more liberty diminishes.
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What wisdom can you find that is greater than kindness?