Jean Jacques Rousseau Quotes


"Those that are most slow in making a promise are the most faithful in the performance of it."
- Jean Jacques Rousseau
(Related: Performance, Promise)

"It is too difficult to think nobly when one thinks only of earning a living."
- Jean Jacques Rousseau
(Related: Living)

"The world of reality has its limits; the world of imagination is boundless."
- Jean Jacques Rousseau
(Related: Imagination, Limits, Reality, World)

"I have always said and felt that true enjoyment can not be described."
- Jean Jacques Rousseau
(Related: Enjoyment)

"I hate books; they only teach us to talk about things we know nothing about."
- Jean Jacques Rousseau
(Related: Books, Hate, Nothing, Talk)

"However great a man's natural talent may be, the act of writing cannot be learned all at once."
- Jean Jacques Rousseau
(Related: Talent, Act, Man, May, Writing)

"How many famous and high-spirited heroes have lived a day too long?"
- Jean Jacques Rousseau
(Related: Day, Famous, Heroes)

"Heroes are not known by the loftiness of their carriage; the greatest braggarts are generally the merest cowards."
- Jean Jacques Rousseau
(Related: Cowards, Heroes)

"The English think they are free. They are free only during the election of members of parliament."
- Jean Jacques Rousseau
(Related: English, Parliament)

"The first step towards vice is to shroud innocent actions in mystery, and whoever likes to conceal something sooner or later has reason to conceal it."
- Jean Jacques Rousseau
(Related: Actions, First, Mystery, Reason, Vice)

"The person who has lived the most is not the one with the most years but the one with the richest experiences."
- Jean Jacques Rousseau
(Related: Years)

"Gratitude is a duty which ought to be paid, but which none have a right to expect."
- Jean Jacques Rousseau
(Related: Gratitude, Duty, Right)

"The body politic, as well as the human body, begins to die as soon as it is born, and carries itself the causes of its destruction."
- Jean Jacques Rousseau
(Related: Body, Causes, Destruction)

"People who know little are usually great talkers, while men who know much say little."
- Jean Jacques Rousseau
(Related: Men, People)

"Patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet."
- Jean Jacques Rousseau
(Related: Patience)

"Our will is always for our own good, but we do not always see what that is."
- Jean Jacques Rousseau
(Related: Will)

"Our greatest evils flow from ourselves."
- Jean Jacques Rousseau
"Our affections as well as our bodies are in perpetual flux."
- Jean Jacques Rousseau
"Nature never deceives us; it is we who deceive ourselves."
- Jean Jacques Rousseau
(Related: Nature)

"Most nations, as well as people are impossible only in their youth; they become incorrigible as they grow older."
- Jean Jacques Rousseau
(Related: People, Nations, Youth)

"Man is born free, and everywhere he is in shackles."
- Jean Jacques Rousseau
(Related: Man)

"Money is the seed of money, and the first guinea is sometimes more difficult to acquire than the second million."
- Jean Jacques Rousseau
(Related: Money, First)

"The training of children is a profession, where we must know how to waste time in order to save it."
- Jean Jacques Rousseau
(Related: Time, Children, Order, Profession, Training, Waste)

"Take from the philosopher the pleasure of being heard and his desire for knowledge ceases."
- Jean Jacques Rousseau
(Related: Knowledge, Being, Desire, Pleasure)

"Plant and your spouse plants with you; weed and you weed alone."
- Jean Jacques Rousseau
(Related: Plants)

"The English are predisposed to pride, the French to vanity."
- Jean Jacques Rousseau
(Related: English, Pride, Vanity)

"Free people, remember this maxim: we may acquire liberty, but it is never recovered if it is once lost."
- Jean Jacques Rousseau
(Related: People, Liberty, May)

"You forget that the fruits belong to all and that the land belongs to no one."
- Jean Jacques Rousseau
(Related: Forget, Land)

"Remorse sleeps during prosperity but awakes bitter consciousness during adversity."
- Jean Jacques Rousseau
(Related: Adversity, Consciousness, Prosperity, Remorse)

"When something an affliction happens to you, you either let it defeat you, or you defeat it."
- Jean Jacques Rousseau
(Related: Affliction, Defeat)

"We should not teach children the sciences; but give them a taste for them."
- Jean Jacques Rousseau
(Related: Children, Taste)

"We pity in others only the those evils which we ourselves have experienced."
- Jean Jacques Rousseau
(Related: Pity)

"We do not know what is really good or bad fortune."
- Jean Jacques Rousseau
(Related: Fortune)

"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."
- Jean Jacques Rousseau
(Related: Education, Strength, Man, Reason)

"To endure is the first thing that a child ought to learn, and that which he will have the most need to know."
- Jean Jacques Rousseau
(Related: First, Will)

"Reading, solitude, idleness, a soft and sedentary life, intercourse with women and young people, these are perilous paths for a young man, and these lead him constantly into danger."
- Jean Jacques Rousseau
(Related: Women, Life, People, Danger, Idleness, Man, Reading, Solitude)

"All of my misfortunes come from having thought too well of my fellows."
- Jean Jacques Rousseau
(Related: Thought)

"Force does not constitute right... obedience is due only to legitimate powers."
- Jean Jacques Rousseau
(Related: Force, Obedience, Right)

"Take the course opposite to custom and you will almost always do well."
- Jean Jacques Rousseau
(Related: Custom, Will)

"Absolute silence leads to sadness. It is the image of death."
- Jean Jacques Rousseau
(Related: Death, Sadness, Silence)

"Although modesty is natural to man, it is not natural to children. Modesty only begins with the knowledge of evil."
- Jean Jacques Rousseau
(Related: Knowledge, Children, Evil, Man, Modesty)

"Base souls have no faith in great individuals."
- Jean Jacques Rousseau
(Related: Faith)

"Childhood is the sleep of reason."
- Jean Jacques Rousseau
(Related: Childhood, Reason, Sleep)

"Every man has a right to risk his own life for the preservation of it."
- Jean Jacques Rousseau
(Related: Life, Man, Right, Risk)

"Falsehood has an infinity of combinations, but truth has only one mode of being."
- Jean Jacques Rousseau
(Related: Truth, Being, Falsehood, Infinity)

"Fame is but the breath of people, and that often unwholesome."
- Jean Jacques Rousseau
(Related: People, Fame)

"A feeble body weakens the mind."
- Jean Jacques Rousseau
(Related: Body, Mind)