Jean-Jacques Rousseau Quotes
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In all the ills that befall us, we are more concerned by the intention than the result. A tile that falls off a roof may injure us more seriously, but it will not wound us so deeply as a stone thrown deliberately by a malevolent hand. The blow may miss, but the intention always strikes home.
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The French, for example, are a contemptible nation.
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I do not know is a phrase which becomes us.
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The animals you eat are not those who devour others; you do not eat the carnivorous beasts, you take them as your pattern. You only hunger for the sweet and gentle creatures which harm no one, which follow you, serve you, and are devoured by you as the reward of their service.
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She was dull, unattractive, couldn't tell the time, count money or tie her own shoe laces... But I loved her
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The taste for splendor is hardly ever combined in the same souls with the taste for the honorable.
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Take from the philosopher the pleasure of being heard and his desire for knowledge ceases.
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Provided a man is not mad, he can be cured of every folly but vanity.
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Beware of listening to this impostor; you are undone if you once forget that the fruits of the earth belong to us all, and the earth itself to nobody.
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Smell is the sense of memory and desire.
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Our will is always for our own good, but we do not always see what that is; the people is never corrupted, but it is often deceived, and on such occasions only does it seem to will what is bad.
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One may live tranquilly in a dungeon; but does life consist in living quietly?
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Slaves lose everything in their chains, even the desire of escaping from them.
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L'accent est l'âme du discours.
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We have to have powder for our wigs; that is why so many poor people have no bread.
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Her dignity consists in being unknown to the world; her glory is in the esteem of her husband; her pleasures in the happiness of her family.
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Ought to have a universal compulsory force to move and arrange each part in the manner best suited to the whole. Just as nature gives each man an absolute power over all his members, the social compact gives the body politic an absolute power over all its members." "We grant that each person alienates, by the social compact, only that portion of his power, his goods, and liberty whose use is of consequence to the community; but we must also grant that only the sovereign is the judge of what is of consequence.
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For it is in our nature to endure patiently the decrees of fate, but not the ill-will of others.
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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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The people is never corrupted, but it is often deceived.
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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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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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A person who can break wind is not dead.
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I say to myself: "Who are you to measure infinite power?