“Take from the philosopher the pleasure of being heard and his desire for knowledge ceases.”
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Famous Jean-Jacques Rousseau Quotes
“The English are predisposed to pride, the French to vanity.”
“Force does not constitute right... obedience is due only to legitimate powers.”
“How many famous and high-spirited heroes have lived a day too long?”
“Our affections as well as our bodies are in perpetual flux.”
“We pity in others only the those evils which we ourselves have experienced.”
Source: Emile
“I would rather be a man of paradoxes than a man of prejudices.”
Source: Jean Jacques Rousseau: His Educational Theories Selected from Émile, Julie and Other Writings
“Civilization is a hopeless race to discover remedies for the evils it produces.”
“Love, known to the person by whom it is inspired, becomes more bearable.”
“We have to have powder for our wigs; that is why so many poor people have no bread.”
Source: The Basic Political Writings (Second Edition)
Source: Emile: selections
“Laws are always useful to those who possess and vexatious to those who have nothing.”
“Every artists wants to be applauded”
Source: The Major Political Writings of Jean-Jacques Rousseau: The Two
“There is no evildoer who could not be made good for something.”
Source: Rousseau's political writings: new translations, interpretive notes, backgrounds, commentaries
Source: The Social Contract
Source: The Social Contract
Source: On the Social Contract
Source: The Confessions
“To renounce freedom is to renounce one's humanity, one's rights as a man and equally one's duties.”
“I say to myself: "Who are you to measure infinite power?”
Source: Jean-Jacgues Rousseau Emile or On Education
“Or, rather, let us be more simple and less vain.”
Source: Jean-Jacgues Rousseau Emile or On Education
“I perceive God everywhere in His works. I sense Him in me; I see Him all around me.”
Source: Emile: Or, On Education
“Why should we build our happiness on the opinons of others, when we can find it in our own hearts?”
Source: The Social Contract ; And, The Discourses