Jean-Jacques Rousseau Quotes
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Remorse sleeps in the atmosphere of prosperity.
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The greatest braggarts are usually the biggest cowards.
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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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What good would it be to possess the whole universe if one were its only survivor?
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To try to conceal our own heart is a bad means to read that of others.
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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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Every man has the right to risk his own life in order to preserve it. Has it ever been said that a man who throws himself out the window to escape from a fire is guilty of suicide?
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Taste is, so to speak, the microscope of the judgment.
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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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No man has any natural authority over his fellow men.
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Every man has a right to risk his own life for the preservation of it.
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It is not possible for minds degraded by a host of trivial concerns to ever rise to anything great.
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L'offenseur ne pardonne jamais.1
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Foxley translation
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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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The man who meditates is a depraved animal.
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If I am part of a group of 100 people, do 99 people have the right to sentence me to death, just because they are majority?
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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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The man is best served who has no occasion to put the hands of others at the end of his own arms.
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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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All that time is lost which might be better employed.
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We are born weak, we need strength; helpless, we need aid; foolish, we need reason. All that we lack at birth, all that we need when we come to man's estate, is the gift of education.
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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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In the North the first words are, Help me; in the South, Love me.