Jean-Jacques Rousseau Quotes
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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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The French, for example, are a contemptible nation.
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Slaves lose everything in their chains, even the desire of escaping from them.
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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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Provided a man is not mad, he can be cured of every folly but vanity.
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Smell is the sense of memory and desire.
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Universal silence is taken to imply the consent of the people.
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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 want of occupation is no less the plague of society than of solitude.
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I do not know is a phrase which becomes us.
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L'accent est l'âme du discours.
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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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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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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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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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We have to have powder for our wigs; that is why so many poor people have no bread.
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A person who can break wind is not dead.
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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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I say to myself: "Who are you to measure infinite power?
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What good would it be to possess the whole universe if one were its only survivor?
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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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To renounce freedom is to renounce one's humanity, one's rights as a man and equally one's duties.
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When a man dies he clutches in his hands only that which he has given away during his lifetime.