Jean-Jacques Rousseau Quotes
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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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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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Teach by doing whenever you can, and only fall back upon words when doing it is out of the question.
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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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Do to others as you would have others do to you, inspires all men with that other maxim of natural goodness a great deal less perfect, but perhaps more useful: Do good to yourself with as little prejudice as you can to others.
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Men speak from knowledge, women from imagination.
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Leave those vain moralists, my friend, and return to the depth of your soul: that is where you will always rediscover the source of the sacred fire which so often inflamed us with love of the sublime virtues; that is where you will see the eternal image of true beauty, the contemplation of which inspires us with a holy enthusiasm.
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Every artists wants to be applauded
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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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We do not know either unalloyed happiness or unmitigated misfortune. Everything in this world is a tangled yarn; we taste nothing in its purity; we do not remain two moments in the same state. Our affections as well as bodies, are in a perpetual flux.
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The general will is always right.
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The bigger a state becomes the more liberty diminishes.
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The world of reality has its limits; the world of imagination is boundless.
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Even knaves may be made good for something.
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The happiest is he who suffers least; the most miserable is he who enjoys least.
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To abstain that we may enjoy is the epicurianism of reason.
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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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As long as there are rich people in the world, they will be desirous of distinguishing themselves from the poor.
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Fame is but the breath of people, and that often unwholesome.
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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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Men and women are made for each other, but their mutual dependence differs in degrees; man is dependent on woman through his desires; woman is dependent on man through her desires and also through her needs; he could do without her better than she can do without him. She cannot fulfill her purpose in life without his aid, without his goodwill, without his respect.....Nature herself has decreed that woman, both for herself and her children, should be at the mercy of man s judgment.
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Yes, if the life and death of Socrates are those of a wise man, the life and death of Jesus are those of a god.
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Good laws lead to the making of better ones; bad ones bring about worse.
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Singing and dancing alone will not advance one in the world. [Fr., Qui bien chante et bien danse fait un metier qui peu avance.]