Quotessence
Home / Authors / Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Jean-Jacques Rousseau Quotes

Philosopher

Filter quotes by topic

AllMenIfsPeopleMayPhilosophicalKnowsSocial ContractHeartChildrenLibertyLawReasonSoulWorldBodyDoeStatesThinkingShouldDesire

Famous Jean-Jacques Rousseau Quotes

“At Genoa, the word Liberty may be read over the front of the prisons and on the chains of the galley-slaves. This application of the device is good and just. It is indeed only malefactors of all estates who prevent the citizen from being free. In the country in which all such men were in the galleys, the most perfect liberty would be enjoyed.”

MenMayCountryWould BePerfectLibertyFrontsCitizensPrisonSlaveChainsEnjoyedDevicesApplicationEstatesBeing Free
Book:On the Social Contract
Create image

“My bad head cannot adjust itself to the way things are.... If I want to depict spring, it has to be in wintertime; if I want to describe a beautiful landscape, I must be enclosed within walls; and I have said a hundred times that if I were put in the Bastille, there I would paint a picture of liberty.”

IfsWayWantSaidTruthBeautifulImaginationLibertyWallSpringHundredPaintLandscapeAutobiographyWintertimeBeautiful LandscapesBastille
Author:Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Create image

“Ought to have a universal compulsory force to move and arrange each part in the manner best suited to the whole. Just as nature gives each man an absolute power over all his members, the social compact gives the body politic an absolute power over all its members." "We grant that each person alienates, by the social compact, only that portion of his power, his goods, and liberty whose use is of consequence to the community; but we must also grant that only the sovereign is the judge of what is of consequence.”

MenGivingPersonsWholeUseBodyMovingForceSocialCommunityLibertyHe ManJudgingOughtMembersConsequenceUniversalAbsolutesGoodsGrantsPortionsSovereignCompactCompulsoryAbsolute Power
Author:Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Create image

“It is to law alone that men owe justice and liberty. It is this salutary organ, of the will of all which establishes in civil rights the natural equality between men. It is this celestial voice which dictates to each citizen the precepts of public reason, and teaches him to act according to the rules of his own judgment and not to behave inconsistently with himself. It is with this voice alone that political leaders should speak when. they command.”

MenShouldReasonLawPoliticalSpeakVoiceNaturalJusticeLibertyLeaderTeachRightsCitizensJudgmentCommandCivil RightsBehaveOrgansCelestialPolitical Leaders
Book:The Social Contract
Create image