Jean-Jacques Rousseau Quotes

Provided a man is not mad, he can be cured of every folly but vanity; there is no cure for this but experience, if indeed there is any cure for it at all.

One can buy anything with money except morality.

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

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

The one thing we do not know is the limit of the knowable.

In the strict sense of the term, a true democracy has never existed, and never will exist.

Rather suffer an injustice than commit one.

Peter had a genius for imitation; but he lacked true genius, which is creative and makes all from nothing.

All kinds of frankness and honesty are terrible crimes in the eyes of society.

We have to have powder for our wigs; that is why so many poor people have no bread.

All of my misfortunes come from having thought too well of my fellows.

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

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

You forget that the fruits belong to all and that the land belongs to no one.

Government originated in the attempt to find a form of association that defends and protects the person and property of each with the common force of all.

I would rather be a man of paradoxes than a man of prejudices.

The majesty of the Scriptures strikes me with admiration, as the purity of the gospel has its influence on my heart.

A feeble body weakens the mind.

It is a mania shared by philosophers of all ages to deny what exists and to explain what does not exist.

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

Do you not know...that a child badly taught is farther from being wise than one not taught at all?

The money you have gives you freedom; the money you pursue enslaves you.

Falsehood has an infinity of combinations, but truth has only one mode of being.

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.

I have resolved on an enterprise that has no precedent and will have no imitator. I want to set before my fellow human beings a man in every way true to nature; and that man will be myself.

Abstaining so as really to enjoy, is the epicurism, the very perfection, of reason.

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

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

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?

I feel an indescribable ecstasy and delirium in melting, as it were, into the system of being, in identifying myself with the whole of nature.

The truths of the Scriptures are so marked and inimitable, that the inventor would be more of a miraculous character than the hero.

Liberty may be gained, but can never be recovered.

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

Whoever blushes is already guilty; true innocence is ashamed of nothing.

As soon as any man says of the affairs of the State "What does it matter to me?" the State may be given up for lost.

Luxury either comes of riches or makes them necessary; it corrupts at once rich and poor, the rich by possession and the poor by covetousness.

Consolation indiscreetly pressed upon us, when we are suffering undue affliction, only serves to increase our pain, and to render our grief more poignant.

Patience patience quotes is bitter, but its fruit is sweet.

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

Great men never make bad use of their superiority. They see it and feel it and are not less modest. The more they have, the more they know their own deficiencies.

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

One may live tranquilly in a dungeon; but does life consist in living quietly?

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.

Reason deceives us; conscience, never.

The training of children is a profession, where we must know how to waste time in order to save it.

Although modesty is natural to man, it is not natural to children. Modesty only begins with the knowledge of evil.

Everything is good as it comes from the hands of the Maker of the world, but degenerates once it gets into the hands of man

Nature never deceives us; it is we who deceive ourselves.

We cannot work for others without working for ourselves.

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?