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Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Jean-Jacques Rousseau Quotes

Philosopher

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Famous Jean-Jacques Rousseau Quotes

“Our passions are the chief means of self-preservation; to try to destroy them is therefore as absurd as it is useless; this would be to overcome nature, to reshape God's handiwork. If God bade man annihilate the passions he has given him, God would bid him be and not be; He would contradict himself. He has never given such a foolish commandment, there is nothing like it written on the heart of man, and what God will have a man do, He does not leave to the words of another man. He speaks Himself; His words are written in the secret heart.”

IfsMenTryingHeartMeanDoeSelfWould BePassionSpeakGivenSecretWrittenOvercomingFoolishGods WillAbsurdChiefsUselessCommandmentsPreservationAnother ManSelf PreservationHandiwork
Book:Emile: Or, On Education
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“Two things, almost incompatible, are united in me in a manner which I am unable to understand: a very ardent temperament, lively and tumultuous passions, and, at the same time, slowly developed and confused ideas, which never present themselves until it is too late. One might say that my heart and my mind do not belong to the same person.”

MindHeartPersonsTwoIdeasMightPassionUnitedMy HeartLateConfusedTwo ThingsToo LateTemperamentLivelyArdent
Book:Confessions
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“I believed that I was approaching the end of my days without having tasted to the full any of the pleasures for which my heart thirsted...without having ever tasted that passion which, through lack of an object, was always suppressed. ...The impossibility of attaining the real persons precipitated me into the land of chimeras; and seeing nothing that existed worthy of my exalted feelings, I fostered them in an ideal world which my creative imagination soon peopled with beings after my own heart.”

WorldHeartPersonsRealEndsFeelingsPassionImaginationMy OwnPleasureCreativeSeeingLandObjectsMy HeartIdealsWorthyImpossibilityExaltedReal PersonCreative ImaginationIdeal WorldChimera
Author:Jean-Jacques Rousseau
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“Everything is in constant flux on this earth. Nothing keeps the same unchanging shape, and our affections, being attached to things outside us, necessarily change and pass away as they do. Always out ahead of us or lagging behind, they recall a past which is gone or anticipate a future which may never come into being; there is nothing solid there for the heart to attach itself to. Thus our earthly joys are almost without exception the creatures of a moment.”

HeartMayMomentsEarthPastJoyBehindsGoneShapesCreaturesConstantAffectionExceptionRecallsAnticipateBeing TherePassing AwayFluxUnchanging
Author:Jean-Jacques Rousseau
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“Your first duty is to be humane. Love childhood. Look with friendly eyes on its games, its pleasures, its amiable dispositions. Which of you does not sometimes look back regretfully on the age when laughter was ever on the lips and the heart free of care? Why steal from the little innocents the enjoyment of a time that passes all too quickly?”

FirstsLooksHeartLittlesDoeSometimesEyeCareAgeGamesPleasureTeachingChildhoodDutyLaughterLipsStealingEnjoymentFriendlyDispositionHumaneChildren LoveAmiable
Author:Jean-Jacques Rousseau
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