Jean-Jacques Rousseau Quotes
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I have entered on an enterprise which is without precedent, and will have no imitator. I propose to show my fellows a man as nature made him, and this man shall be myself.
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Chemistry... is like the maid occupied with daily civilisation; she is busy with fertilisers, medicines, glass, insecticides ... for she dispenses the recipes.
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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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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 taste for splendor is hardly ever combined in the same souls with the taste for the honorable.
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One may live tranquilly in a dungeon; but does life consist in living quietly?
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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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The visible order of the universe proclaims a supreme intelligence.
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Provided a man is not mad, he can be cured of every folly but vanity.
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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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We have to have powder for our wigs; that is why so many poor people have no bread.
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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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Smell is the sense of memory and desire.
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Take from the philosopher the pleasure of being heard and his desire for knowledge ceases.
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Slaves lose everything in their chains, even the desire of escaping from them.
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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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The people is never corrupted, but it is often deceived.
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A person who can break wind is not dead.
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It is in man's heart that the life of nature's spectacle exists; to see it, one must feel it.
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L'accent est l'âme du discours.
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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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In the strict sense of the term, a true democracy has never existed, and never will exist.
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Ah, that is a perfume in which I delight; when they roast coffee near my house, I hasten to open the door to take in all the aroma.