Jean-Jacques Rousseau Quotes
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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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As long as there are rich people in the world, they will be desirous of distinguishing themselves from the poor.
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At Genoa, the word Liberty may be read over the front of the prisons and on the chains of the galley-slaves. This application of the device is good and just. It is indeed only malefactors of all estates who prevent the citizen from being free. In the country in which all such men were in the galleys, the most perfect liberty would be enjoyed.
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Trust your heart rather than your head.
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No one is happy unless he respects himself.
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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 don't know what is truth,but I can tell you how to find it!
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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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To abstain that we may enjoy is the epicurianism of reason.
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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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Religious persecutors are not believers, they are rascals.
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Luxury either comes of riches or makes them necessary; it corrupts at once rich and poor, the rich by possession and the poor by covetousness.
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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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Even knaves may be made good for something.
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I only see clearly what I remember.
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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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Good laws lead to the making of better ones; bad ones bring about worse.
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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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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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All of my misfortunes come from having thought too well of my fellows.
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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.]
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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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There is no subjection so perfect as that which keeps the appearance of freedom.