-
A country cannot subsist well without liberty, nor liberty without virtue.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau -
That which renders life burdensome to us generally arises from the abuse of it.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
-
The thirst after happiness is never extinguished in the heart of man.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau -
A paralyzed man who wants to walk OR an agile man who does not want to walk will both remain neutral in nature.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau -
Provided a man is not mad, he can be cured of every folly but vanity.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau -
Smell is the sense of memory and desire.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau -
L'accent est l'âme du discours.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau -
People who know little are usually great talkers, while men who know much say little.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
-
...in respect of riches, no citizen shall ever be wealthy enough to buy another, and none poor enough to be forced to sell himself.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau -
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.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau -
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.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau -
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.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau -
Once you teach people to say what they do not understand, it is easy enough to get them to say anything you like.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau -
Those that are most slow in making a promise are the most faithful in the performance of it.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
-
Let's go dance under the elms:Step lively, young lassies.Let's go dance under the elms:Gallants, take up your pipes.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau -
There is no folly of which a man who is not a fool cannot get rid except vanity; of this nothing cures a man except experience of its bad consequences, if indeed anything can cure it.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau -
Socrates dies with honor, surrounded by his disciples listening to the most tender words -the easiest death that one could wish to die. Jesus dies in pain, dishonor, mockery, the object of universal cursing - the most horrible death that one could fear. At the receipt of the cup of poison, Socrates blesses him who could not give it to him without tears; Jesus, while suffering the sharpest pains, prays for His most bitter enemies. If Socrates lived and died like a philosopher, Jesus lived and died like a god.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau -
Taste is, so to speak, the microscope of the judgment.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau -
To renounce freedom is to renounce one's humanity, one's rights as a man and equally one's duties.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau -
There are times when I am so unlike myself that I might be taken for someone else of an entirely opposite character.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
-
The people is never corrupted, but it is often deceived.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau -
Foxley translation
Jean-Jacques Rousseau -
The more humanity owes him, the more society denies him. Every door is shut against him, even when he has a right to its being opened: and if he ever obtains justice, it is with much greater difficulty than others obtain favors.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau -
L'offenseur ne pardonne jamais.1
Jean-Jacques Rousseau