Jean-Jacques Rousseau Quotes
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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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There is no subjection so perfect as that which keeps the appearance of freedom.
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I have never believed that man's freedom consisted in doing what he wants, but rather in never doing what he does not want to do.
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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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There is no evildoer who could not be made good for something.
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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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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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Your first duty is to be humane. Love childhood. Look with friendly eyes on its games, its pleasures, its amiable dispositions. Which of you does not sometimes look back regretfully on the age when laughter was ever on the lips and the heart free of care? Why steal from the little innocents the enjoyment of a time that passes all too quickly?
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The only moral lesson which is suited for a child--the most important lesson for every time of life--is this: 'Never hurt anybody.
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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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Living is not breathing but doing.
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Posterity is always just.
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Laws are always useful to those who possess and vexatious to those who have nothing.
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Women, in general, are not attracted to art at all, nor knowledge, and not at all to genius.
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Jewish authors would never have invented either that style nor that morality; and the Gospel has marks of truth so great, so striking, so utterly inimitable, that the invention of it would be more astonishing than the hero.
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Not all the subtilties of metaphysics can make me doubt a moment of the immortality of the soul, and of a beneficent Providence. I feel it, I believe it, I desire it, I hope it, and will defend it to my last breath.
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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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General abstract truth is the most precious of all blessings; without it, man is blind; it is the eye of reason.
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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.
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I hate books; they only teach us to talk about things we know nothing about.
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All of my misfortunes come from having thought too well of my fellows.
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Remorse sleeps during prosperity but awakes bitter consciousness during adversity.
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One must choose between making a man or a citizen, for one cannot make both at the same time.
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When my reason is afloat, my faith cannot long remain in suspense, and I believe in God as firmly as in any other truth whatever; in short, a thousand motives draw me to the consolatory side, and add the weight of hope to the equilibrium of reason.