Jean-Jacques Rousseau Quotes
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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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The passions are the voice of the body.
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It is not our criminal actions that require courage to confess, but those which are ridiculous and foolish.
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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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As a general rule-never substitute the symbol for the thing signified, unless it is impossible to show the thing itself; for the child's attention is so taken up with the symbol that he will forget what it signifies.
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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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Although modesty is natural to man, it is not natural to children. Modesty only begins with the knowledge of evil.
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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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The world of reality has its limits; the world of imagination is boundless.
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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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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 have never thought, for my part, that man's freedom consists in his being able to do whatever he wills, but that he should not, by any human power, be forced to do what is against his will.
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Consolation indiscreetly pressed upon us, when we are suffering undue affliction, only serves to increase our pain, and to render our grief more poignant.
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I may not amount to much, but at least I am unique.
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The strongest is never strong enough to be always the master, unless he transforms strength into right, and obedience into duty.
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I remembered the way out suggested by a great princess when told that the peasants had no bread: 'Well, let them eat cake'.
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A man who is not a fool can rid himself of every folly except vanity.
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Sacrifice life to truth.
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Man is born free and everywhere he is in chains.
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Virtue is a state of war, and to live in it we have always to combat with ourselves.
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Fame is but the breath of people, and that often unwholesome.
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Do you not know...that a child badly taught is farther from being wise than one not taught at all?
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As long as there are rich people in the world, they will be desirous of distinguishing themselves from the poor.
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It has always pleased me to read while eating if I have no companion; it gives me the society I lack. I devour alternately a page and a mouthful; it is as though my book were dining with me.