Jean-Jacques Rousseau Quotes
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Nothing is less in our power than the heart, and far from commanding we are forced to obey it.
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Those that are most slow in making a promise are the most faithful in the performance of it.
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That which renders life burdensome to us generally arises from the abuse of it.
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I was not much afraid of punishment, I was only afraid of disgrace.But that I feared more than death, more than crime, more than anything in the world. I should have rejoiced if the earth had swallowed me up and stifled me in the abyss. But my invincible sense of shame prevailed over everything . It was my shame that made me impudent, and the more wickedly I behaved the bolder my fear of confession made me. I saw nothing but the horror of being found out, of being publicly proclaimed, to my face, as a thief, as a liar, and slanderer.
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A country cannot subsist well without liberty, nor liberty without virtue.
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I also realized that the philosophers, far from ridding me of my vain doubts, only multiplied the doubts that tormented me and failed to remove any one of them. So I chose another guide and said, Let me follow the Inner Light; it will not lead me so far astray as others have done, or if it does it will be my own fault, and I shall not go so far wrong if I follow my own illusions as if I trusted to their deceits.
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If there were a nation of Gods, it would govern itself democratically. A government so perfect is not suited to men.
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Beings who are so uniquely constituted must necessarily express themselves in other ways than ordinary men. It is impossible that with souls so differently modified, they should not carry over into the expression of their feelings and ideas the stamp of those modifications.
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In the strict sense of the term, a true democracy has never existed, and never will exist.
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The thirst after happiness is never extinguished in the heart of man.
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To renounce freedom is to renounce one's humanity, one's rights as a man and equally one's duties.
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A paralyzed man who wants to walk OR an agile man who does not want to walk will both remain neutral in nature.
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Liberty is obedience to the law which one has laid down for oneself
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Our island is this earth; and the most striking object we behold is the sun. As soon as we pass beyond our immediate surroundings, one or both of these must meet our eye. Thus the philosophy of most savage races is mainly directed to imaginary divisions of the earth or to the divinity of the sun.
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Peter had a genius for imitation; but he lacked true genius, which is creative and makes all from nothing.
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As for the Soothsayer, although I am certain no one feels the true beauties of that work better than I, I am far from finding these beauties in the same places as the infatuated public does. They are not the products of study and knowledge, but rather are inspired by taste and sensitivity.
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The problem is to find a form of association which will defend and protect with the whole common force the person and goods of each associate, and in which each, while uniting himself with all, may still obey himself alone, and remain as free as before.
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I long remained a child, and I am still one in many respects.
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A man speaks of what he knows, a woman of what pleases her: the one requires knowledge, the other taste.
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L'accent est l'âme du discours.
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Insults are the arguments employed by those who are in the wrong.
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Once you teach people to say what they do not understand, it is easy enough to get them to say anything you like.
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Every blue-stocking will remain a spinster as long as there are sensible men on the earth. [Fr., Toute fille lettree restera fille toute sa vie, quand il n'y aura que des hommes senses sur la terre.]
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I would rather be a man of paradoxes than a man of prejudices.