Jean-Jacques Rousseau Quotes

Every artists wants to be applauded

How could I become wicked, when I had nothing but examples of gentleness before my eyes, and none around me but the best people in the world?

One must choose between making a man or a citizen, for one cannot make both at the same time.

People who know little are usually great talkers, while men who know much say little.

The writings of women are always cold and pretty like themselves. There is as much wit as you may desire, but never any soul.

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?

One thinks himself the master of others, and still remains a greater slave than they.

He who wills the end, wills the means also, and the means must involve some risks, and even some losses.

Force does not constitute right ... obedience is due only to legitimate powers.

One can buy anything with money except morality.

The bigger a state becomes the more liberty diminishes.

Insults are the arguments employed by those who are in the wrong.

The greatest braggarts are usually the biggest cowards.

He who blushes is already guilty.

The strongest is never strong enough to be always the master, unless he transforms strength into right, and obedience into duty

[T]he mere impulse of appetite is slavery, while obedience to a law which we prescribe to ourselves is liberty.

The empire of woman is an empire of softness, of address, of complacency. Her commands are caresses, her menaces are tears.

The science of government is only a science of combinations, of applications, and of exceptions, according to times, places and circumstances.

Nothing on this earth is worth
buying at the price of human blood.

General abstract truth is the most precious of all blessings; without it, man is blind; it is the eye of reason.

To renounce freedom is to renounce one's humanity, one's rights as a man and equally one's duties.

The money that we possess is the instrument of liberty, that which we lack and strive to obtain is the instrument of slavery.

Her dignity consists in being unknown to the world; her glory is in the esteem of her husband; her pleasures in the happiness of her family.

How many centuries must have elapsed before men reached the point of seeing any other fire than that in the sky?

We pity in others only the those evils which we ourselves have experienced.

The only moral lesson which is suited for a child
the most important lesson for every time of life
is this: 'Never hurt anybody.

My liveliest delight was in having conquered myself.

I do not know the art of being clear to those who do not want to be attentive.

An honest man nearly always thinks justly.

Slaves lose everything in their chains, even the desire of escaping from them.

I hate books; they only teach us to talk about things we know nothing about.

The world of reality has its limits; the world of imagination is boundless.

It is unnatural for a majority to rule, for a majority can seldom be organized and united for specific action, and a minority can.

At sixteen, the adolescent knows about suffering because he himself has suffered, but he barely knows that other beings also suffer.

The mechanism she employs is much more powerful than ours, for all her levers move the human heart.

Money is the seed of money, and the first guinea is sometimes more difficult to acquire than the second million.

Liberty may be gained, but can never be recovered. (Bk2:8)

Living is not breathing but doing.

That which renders life burdensome to us generally arises from the abuse of it.

People in their natural state are basically good. But this natural innocence,however, is corrupted by the evils of society.

What wisdom can you find greater than kindness.

Religious persecutors are not believers, they are rascals.

We cannot teach children the danger of lying to men without feeling as men, the greater danger of lying to children.

For it is in our nature to endure patiently the decrees of fate, but not the ill-will of others.

I only see clearly what I remember.

Hatred, as well as love, renders its votaries credulous.

The English think they are free. They are free only during the election of members of parliament.

The visible order of the universe proclaims a supreme intelligence.

As long as there are rich people in the world, they will be desirous of distinguishing themselves from the poor.

Alas, it is when we are beginning to leave this mortal body that it most offends us!

In respect of riches, no citizen shall ever be wealthy enough to buy another, and none poor enough to be forced to sell himself.

But remain the teacher of the young teachers. Advise and direct us, and we will be ready to learn. I will have need of you as long as I live.

What good would it be to possess the whole universe if one were its only survivor?

The first step towards vice is to shroud innocent actions in mystery, and whoever likes to conceal something sooner or later has reason to conceal it.

God made me and broke the mold.

Childhood is the sleep of reason.

The man who gets the most out of life is not the one who has lived it longest, but the one who has felt life most deeply.

Girls must be thwarted early in life.

Remorse sleeps in the atmosphere of prosperity.

When one has suffered or fears suffering, one pities those who suffer; but when one is suffering, one pities only oneself.

Our greatest misfortunes come to us from ourselves.

Gambling is only the resource of those who do not know what to do with themselves

The more ingenious our apparatus, the coarser and more unskillful are our senses.

There is no evildoer who could not be made good for something.

Liberty is not to be found in any form of government; she is in the heart of the free man; he bears her with him everywhere.

I do not know is a phrase which becomes us.

I perceive God everywhere in His works. I sense Him in me; I see Him all around me.

True genius is creative and makes all from nothing.

Abstract truth is the eye of reason.

The thirst after happiness is never extinguished in the heart of man.

The people is never corrupted, but it is often deceived ...

I can only meditate when I am walking. When I stop, I cease to think; my mind works only with my legs.

A born king is a very rare being.

There is a period in life when we go backwards as we advance.

Ah, that is a perfume in which I delight; when they roast coffee near my house, I hasten to open the door to take in all the aroma.

Accent is the soul of language; it gives to it both feeling and truth.

Presence of mind, penetration, fine observation, are the sciences of women; ability to avail themselves of these is their talent.

To make a man richer, give him more money of curb his desires.

Frequent punishments are always a sign of weakness or laziness on the part of a government.

Our greatest evil flows from ourselves.

Nature wants children to be children before men ... Childhood has its own seeing, thinking and feeling.

Take from the philosopher the pleasure of being heard and his desire for knowledge ceases.

Girls should learn that so much finery is only put on to hide defects, and that the triumph of beauty is to shine by itself.

I have always said and felt that true enjoyment can not be described.

The wisest writers devote themselves to what a man ought to know, without asking what a child is capable of learning.

Temperance and labor are the two best physicians of man; labor sharpens the appetite, and temperance prevents from indulging to excess

Everything we do not have at our birth and which we need when we are grown is given to us by education.

With children use force; with men reason; such is the natural order of things. The wise man requires no law.

The world is woman's book.

The world is the book of women. Whatever knowledge they may possess is more commonly acquired by observation than by reading.

Happiness is a good bank account, a good cook, and a good digestion.

I may be no better, but at least I am different.

A feeble body weakens the mind.

Why should we build our happiness on the opinons of others, when we can find it in our own hearts?

Women, in general, are not attracted to art at all, nor knowledge, and not at all to genius.

Smell is the sense of memory and desire.

Rather suffer an injustice than commit one.

Sacrifice life to truth.

Nothing is less in our power than the heart, and far from commanding we are forced to obey it.

Man is born free, but is everywhere in chains.