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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Men and women are made for each other, but their mutual dependence differs in degrees; man is dependent on woman through his desires; woman is dependent on man through her desires and also through her needs; he could do without her better than she can do without him. She cannot fulfill her purpose in life without his aid, without his goodwill, without his respect.....Nature herself has decreed that woman, both for herself and her children, should be at the mercy of man s judgment.
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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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That man is truly free who desires what he is able to perform, and does what he desires.
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Laws are always useful to those who possess and vexatious to those who have nothing.
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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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With children use force; with men reason; such is the natural order of things. The wise man requires no law.
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All of my misfortunes come from having thought too well of my fellows.
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Abstaining so as really to enjoy, is the epicurism, the very perfection, of reason.
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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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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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Living is not breathing but doing.
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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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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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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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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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He who blushes is already guilty.
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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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One must choose between making a man or a citizen, for one cannot make both at the same time.
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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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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.