Jean-Jacques Rousseau Quotes
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With children use force; with men reason; such is the natural order of things. The wise man requires no law.
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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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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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Sacrifice life to truth.
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The happiest is he who suffers least; the most miserable is he who enjoys least.
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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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Man is born free and everywhere he is in chains.
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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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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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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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Love childhood, indulge its sports, its pleasures, its delightful instincts. Who has not sometimes regretted that age when laughter was ever on the lips, and when the heart was ever at peace?
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Happiness: a good bank account, a good cook, and a good digestion.
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There is a period in life when we go backwards as we advance.
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To study men, we must look close by; to study man, we must learn to look afar; if we are to discover essential characteristics, we must first observe differences.
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Abstaining so as really to enjoy, is the epicurism, the very perfection, of reason.
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Christ preaches only servitude and dependence... True Christians are made to be slaves.
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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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The infant, on opening his eyes, ought to see his country, and to the hour of his death never lose sight of it.
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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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The world is the book of women. Whatever knowledge they may possess is more commonly acquired by observation than by reading.
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There is no evildoer who could not be made good for something.
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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.