Source: The social contract: and, Discourses
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Famous Jean-Jacques Rousseau Quotes
“People who know little are usually great talkers, while men who know much say little.”
Source: Emile
“Absolute silence leads to sadness. It is the image of death.”
“Insults are the arguments employed by those who are in the wrong.”
“I may be no better, but at least I am different.”
Source: The Confessions
“The world of reality has its limits; the world of imagination is boundless.”
Source: The Social Contract
“What wisdom can you find that is greater than kindness?”
Source: Emile: Or, On Education
Source: Emile
“Whoever blushes is already guilty; true innocence is ashamed of nothing.”
Source: Emile: Or, On Education
“No man has any natural authority over his fellow men.”
Source: The Social Contract
“Falsehood has an infinity of combinations, but truth has only one mode of being.”
“I hate books; they only teach us to talk about things we know nothing about.”
Source: Emile
“You forget that the fruits belong to all and that the land belongs to no one.”
Source: The Essential Writings of Rousseau
“Those that are most slow in making a promise are the most faithful in the performance of it.”
“Gratitude is a duty which ought to be paid, but which none have a right to expect.”
“Happiness: a good bank account, a good cook, and a good digestion.”
Source: Emile
“Plant and your spouse plants with you; weed and you weed alone.”
“All of my misfortunes come from having thought too well of my fellows.”
“It is too difficult to think nobly when one thinks only of earning a living.”
“Take the course opposite to custom and you will almost always do well.”
“Virtue is a state of war, and to live in it we have always to combat with ourselves.”
“Every man has a right to risk his own life for the preservation of it.”
“Childhood is the sleep of reason.”
Source: Emile
“Our greatest evils flow from ourselves.”
Source: Emilius; Or, an Essay on Education
“Religious persecutors are not believers, they are rascals.”
Source: The Social Contract
“Fame is but the breath of people, and that often unwholesome.”
Source: The Social Contract
“Remorse sleeps during prosperity but awakes bitter consciousness during adversity.”
Source: The Confessions of J.J. Rousseau
“We should not teach children the sciences; but give them a taste for them.”
“I have always said and felt that true enjoyment can not be described.”
“I long remained a child, and I am still one in many respects.”
“I only see clearly what I remember.”
Source: The Confessions