Jean-Jacques Rousseau Quotes
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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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Since men cannot create new forces, but merely combine and control those which already exist, the only way in which they can preserve themselves is by uniting their separate powers in a combination strong enough to overcome any resistance, uniting them so that their powers are directed by a single motive and act in concert.
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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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I don't know what is truth,but I can tell you how to find it!
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Men will argue more philosophically about the human heart; but women will read the heart of man better than they.
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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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I loved too sincerely, too completely, I venture to say, to be able to be happy easily.
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From the first moment of life, men ought to begin learning to deserve to live; and, as at the instant of birth we partake of the rights of citizenship, that instant ought to be the beginning of the exercise of our duty.
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Sacrifice life to truth.
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Religious persecutors are not believers, they are rascals.
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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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Remorse sleeps during prosperity but awakes bitter consciousness during adversity.
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Being wealthy isn't just a question of having lots of money. It's a question of what we want. Wealth isn't an absolute, it's relative to desire. Every time we seek something that we can't afford, we can be counted as poor, how much money we may actually have.
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To discover the rules of society that are best suited to nations, there would need to exist a superior intelligence, who could understand the passions of men without feeling any of them, who had no affinity with our nature but knew it to the full, whose happiness was independent of ours, but who would nevertheless make our happiness his concern, who would be content to wait in the fullness of time for a distant glory, and to labour in one age to enjoy the fruits in another. Gods would be needed to give men laws.
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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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There is no subjection so perfect as that which keeps the appearance of freedom.
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No one is happy unless he respects himself.
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To abstain that we may enjoy is the epicurianism of reason.
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Presence of mind, penetration, fine observation, are the sciences of women; ability to avail themselves of these is their talent.
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The English people think they are free; they are greatly deceived; they are free only during the election of members of Parliament.
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I only see clearly what I remember.
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He who has the base necessities of life should pay nothing; taxation on him who has a surplus may, if need be; extend to everything beyond necessities.
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There is one further distinguishing characteristic of man which is very specific indeed and about which there can be no dispute, and that is the faculty of self-improvement - a faculty which, with the help of circumstance, progressively develops all our other faculties.
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Gracefulness cannot subsist without ease; delicacy is not debility; nor must a woman be sick in order to please. Infirmity, and sickness may excite our pity, but desire and pleasure require the bloom and vigor of health.