Jean-Jacques Rousseau Quotes
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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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L'offenseur ne pardonne jamais.1
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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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The greatest braggarts are usually the biggest cowards.
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The opportunity of making happy is more scarce than we imagine; the punishment of missing it is, never to meet with it again; and the use we make of it leaves us an eternal sentiment of satisfaction or repentance.
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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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Every man has a right to risk his own life for the preservation of it.
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The money that we possess is the instrument of liberty, that which we lack and strive to obtain is the instrument of slavery.
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What good would it be to possess the whole universe if one were its only survivor?
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We do not know what really good or bad fortune is.
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[When anything happens, we interpret it as good or bad, but...] We do not know what is really good or bad fortune. [Only the future can decide. For example, what appears to be bad today may in fact lead us to a greater good tomorrow and by the very act of thinking and planning in that positive way, we can help make that good future come true.]
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No man has any natural authority over his fellow men.
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It is unnatural for a majority to rule, for a majority can seldom be organized and united for specific action, and a minority can.
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But I am mistaken in speaking of a Christian republic; the terms are mutually exclusive. Christianity preaches only servitude and dependence. Its spirit is so favorable to tyranny that it always profits by such a regime. True Christians are made to be slaves, and they know it and do not much mind; this short life counts for too little in their eyes.
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O love, if I regret the age when one savors you, it is not for the hour of pleasure, but for the one that follows it.
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An honest man nearly always thinks justly.
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To try to conceal our own heart is a bad means to read that of others.
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The world is woman's book. [Fr., Le monde est le livre des femmes.]
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By doing good we become good.
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To write a good love letter, you ought to begin without knowing what you mean to say, and to finish without knowing what you have written.
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Our greatest misfortunes come to us from ourselves.
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Behold the works of our philosophers; with all their pompous diction, how mean and contemptible they are by comparison with the Scriptures! Is it possible that a book at once so simple and sublime should be merely the work of man?
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All that time is lost which might be better employed.
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The man who meditates is a depraved animal.