Jean-Jacques Rousseau Quotes
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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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There is no subjection so perfect as that which keeps the appearance of freedom.
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Abstaining so as really to enjoy, is the epicurism, the very perfection, of reason.
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I only see clearly what I remember.
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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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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.
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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 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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Laws are always useful to those who possess and vexatious to those who have nothing.
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All of my misfortunes come from having thought too well of my fellows.
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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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Living is not breathing but doing.
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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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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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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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He who blushes is already guilty.
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Posterity is always just.
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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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The first step towards vice is to shroud innocent actions in mystery, and whoever likes to conceal something sooner or later has reason to conceal it.
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There is no evildoer who could not be made good for something.
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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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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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The one thing we do not know is the limit of the knowable.
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What, then, is the government? An intermediary body established between the subjects and the sovereign for their mutual communication, and charged with the execution of the laws and the maintenance of freedom, civil as well as political.