Jean-Jacques Rousseau Quotes
-
Men, in general, are not this or that, they are what they are made to be.
-
A child who passes through many hands in turn, can never be well brought up. At every change he makes a secret comparison, which continually tends to lessen his respect for those who control him, and with it their authority over him. If once he thinks there are grown-up people with no more sense than children the authority of age is destroyed and his education is ruined.
-
To study men, we must look close by; to study man, we must learn to look afar; if we are to discover essential characteristics, we must first observe differences.
-
Equality, because without it there can be no liberty.
-
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.
-
Ruthless man: you begin by slaying the animal and then you devour it, as if to slay it twice. It is not enough. You turn against the dead flesh, it revolts you, it must be transformed by fire, boiled and roasted, seasoned and disguised with drugs; you must have butchers, cooks, turnspits, men who will rid the murder of its horrors, who will dress the dead bodies so that the taste decieved by these disguises will not reject what is strange to it, and will feast on corpses, the very sight of which would sicken you.
-
I am not made like any of those I have seen. I venture to believe that I am not made like any of those who are in existence. If I am not better, at least I am different.
-
The truths of the Scriptures are so marked and inimitable, that the inventor would be more of a miraculous character than the hero.
-
My liveliest delight was in having conquered myself.
-
How many famous and high-spirited heroes have lived a day too long?
-
I remembered the way out suggested by a great princess when told that the peasants had no bread: 'Well, let them eat cake'.
-
We cannot teach children the danger of telling lies to men without realising, on the man's part, the danger of telling lies to children. A single untruth on the part of the master will destroy the results of his education.
-
Whoever blushes is already guilty; true innocence is ashamed of nothing.
-
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.
-
What wisdom can you find that is greater than kindness?
-
Truth is an homage that the good man pays to his own dignity.
-
Watch a cat when it enters a room for the first time. It searches and smells about, it is not quiet for a moment, it trusts nothing until it has examined and made acquaintance with everything.
-
Love childhood, indulge its sports, its pleasures, its delightful instincts. Who has not sometimes regretted that age when laughter was ever on the lips, and when the heart was ever at peace?
-
Anticipation and Hope are born twins.
-
Money is the seed of money, and the first guinea is sometimes more difficult to acquire than the second million.
-
The world of reality has its limits; the world of imagination is boundless.
-
In Genoa, the word, libertas can be read on the front of prisons and on the fetters of galley-slaves. The application of this motto is fine and just.
-
One thinks himself the master of others, and still remains a greater slave than they.
-
A man says what he knows, a woman says what will please.