Jean-Jacques Rousseau Quotes
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Remorse sleeps in the atmosphere of prosperity.
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Taste is, so to speak, the microscope of the judgment.
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The visible order of the universe proclaims a supreme intelligence.
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Never did I think so much, exist so much, be myself so much as in the journeys I have made alone and on foot. Walking has something about it which animates and enlivens my ideas. I can hardly think while I am still; my body must be in motion to move my mind.
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The first person who, having enclosed a plot of land, took it into his head to say this is mine and found people simple enough to believe him was the true founder of civil society. What crimes, wars, murders, what miseries and horrors would the human race have been spared, had some one pulled up the stakes or filled in the ditch and cried out to his fellow men: "Do not listen to this imposter. You are lost if you forget that the fruits of the earth belong to all and the earth to no one!
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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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Oh providence! Oh nature! Treasure of the poor, resource of the unfortunate. The person who feels, knows your holy laws and trusts them, the person whose heart is at peace and whose body does not suffer, thanks to you is not entirely prey to adversity.
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All through life a man has need of a counsellor and guide.
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One can buy anything with money except morality.
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There is not a single ill-doer who could not be turned to some good.
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A citizen should render to the state all the services he can as soon as the sovereign demands them.
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A person who can break wind is not dead.
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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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Do I dare set forth here the most important, the most useful rule of all education? It is not to save time, but to squander it.
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The greatest braggarts are usually the biggest cowards.
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The want of occupation is no less the plague of society than of solitude.
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What good would it be to possess the whole universe if one were its only survivor?
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Many men, seemingly impelled by fortune, hasten forward to meet misfortune half way.
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Patience patience quotes is bitter, but its fruit is sweet.
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The indifference of children towards meat is one proof that the taste for meat is unnatural; their preference is for vegetable foods...Beware of changing this natural taste and making children flesh-eaters, if not for their health's sake, for the sake of their character; for how can one explain away the fact that great meat-eaters are usually fiercer and more cruel than other men; this has been recognised at all times and in all places.
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Every man has a right to risk his own life for the preservation of it.
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He who eats in idleness that which he himself has not earned, steals it; and a capitalist whom the state pays for doing nothing differs little in my eyes from a brigand, who lives at the expense of passers-by.
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Chère amie, ne savez-vous pas que la vertu est un état de guerre, et que, pour y vivre, on a toujours quelque combat à rendre contre soi?
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Foxley translation