Jean-Jacques Rousseau Quotes
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The mechanism she employs is much more powerful than ours, for all her levers move the human heart.
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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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At first we will only skim the surface of the earth like young starlings, but soon, emboldened by practice and experience, we will spring into the air with the impetuousness of the eagle, diverting ourselves by watching the childish behavior of the little men or awling miserably around on the earth below us.
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Or, rather, let us be more simple and less vain.
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Christ preaches only servitude and dependence... True Christians are made to be slaves.
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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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Government originated in the attempt to find a form of association that defends and protects the person and property of each with the common force of all.
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I may not amount to much, but at least I am unique.
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Our greatest evil flows from ourselves.
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People who know little are usually great talkers, while men who know much say little. It is plain that an ignorant person thinks everything he does know important, and he tells it to everybody. But a well-educated man is not so ready to display his learning; he would have too much to say, and he sees that there is much more to be said, so he holds his peace.
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Base souls have no faith in great individuals.
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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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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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No one is happy unless he respects himself.
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A man says what he knows, a woman says what will please.
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Too much apparatus, designed to guide us in experiments and to supplement the exactness of our senses, makes us neglect to use those senses...The more ingenious our apparatus, the coarser and more unskillful are our senses. We surround ourselves with tools and fail to use those which nature has provided every one of us.
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What wisdom can you find that is greater than kindness?
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Happiness: a good bank account, a good cook, and a good digestion.
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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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I bold it impossible, that the great monarchies of Europe can subsist much longer; they all affect magnificence and splendor.
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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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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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For, as I think I have said, I can only meditate when I am walking. When I stop I cease to think; my mind only works with my legs.
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Men speak from knowledge, women from imagination.