Jean-Jacques Rousseau Quotes
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To endure is the first thing that a child ought to learn, and that which he will have the most need to know.
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That man is truly free who desires what he is able to perform, and does what he desires.
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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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To abstain that we may enjoy is the epicurianism of reason.
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Equality, because without it there can be no liberty.
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Sacrifice life to truth.
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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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Fame is but the breath of people, and that often unwholesome.
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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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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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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.
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At length I recollected the thoughtless saying of a great princess, who, on being informed that the country people had no bread, replied, "Let them eat cake".
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Happiness: a good bank account, a good cook, and a good digestion.
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The happiest is he who suffers least; the most miserable is he who enjoys least.
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Man is born free and everywhere he is in chains.
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Abstaining so as really to enjoy, is the epicurism, the very perfection, of reason.
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If all were perfect Christians, individuals would do their duty; the people would be obedient to the laws, the magistrates incorrupt, and there would be neither vanity nor luxury in such a state.
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Christ preaches only servitude and dependence... True Christians are made to be slaves.
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Self-love is an instrument useful but dangerous; it often wounds the hand which makes use of it, and seldom does good without doing harm.
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Sovereigns always see with pleasure a taste for the arts of amusement and superfluity, which do not result in the exportation of bullion, increase among their subjects. They very well know that, besides nourishing that littleness of mind which is proper to slavery, the increase of artificial wants only binds so many more chains upon the people.
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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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Presence of mind, penetration, fine observation, are the sciences of women; ability to avail themselves of these is their talent.
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A man who is not a fool can rid himself of every folly except vanity.
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The infant, on opening his eyes, ought to see his country, and to the hour of his death never lose sight of it.