Jean-Jacques Rousseau Quotes
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People who know little are usually great talkers, while men who know much say little.
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The money you have gives you freedom; the money you pursue enslaves you.
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Days of absence, sad and dreary,Clothed in sorrow's dark array,-Days of absence, I am weary: She I love is far away.
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If all were perfect Christians, individuals would do their duty; the people would be obedient to the laws, the magistrates incorrupt, and there would be neither vanity nor luxury in such a state.
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To try to conceal our own heart is a bad means to read that of others.
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We are born, so to speak, twice over; born into existence, and born into life; born a human being, and born a man.
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An honest man nearly always thinks justly.
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We are reduced to asking others what we are. We never dare to ask ourselves.
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Foxley translation
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Generally we obtain very surely and very speedily what we are not too anxious to obtain.
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Remorse sleeps in the atmosphere of prosperity.
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Our greatest evils flow from ourselves.
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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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Ordinary readers, forgive my paradoxes: one must make them when one reflects; and whatever you may say, I prefer being a man with paradoxes than a man with prejudices.
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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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I have never believed that man's freedom consisted in doing what he wants, but rather in never doing what he does not want to do.
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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 mind grows narrow in proportion as the soul grows corrupt.
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He thinks like a philosopher, but governs like a king.
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We should not teach children the sciences; but give them a taste for them.
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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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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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All through life a man has need of a counsellor and guide.
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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.