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Jean-Jacques Rousseau Quotes

17QUOTES

Jean-Jacques Rousseau: Genevan philosopher of The Social Contract, 1712 to 1778.

Everything is good when it leaves the hands of the Creator; everything degenerates in the hands of man.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau · Émile; or, On Education (1762), I

Nature never deceives us; it is always we who deceive ourselves.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau · Émile; or, On Education, III

The first man who, having fenced in a piece of land, said, “This is mine,” and found people naïve enough to believe him, that man was the true founder of civil society.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau · Discourse upon the Origin and Foundation of the Inequality Among Mankind (1754)

He thinks like a philosopher, but governs like a king.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau · Confessions, XII

It is too difficult to think nobly when one only thinks to get a living.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau · Confessions, II

The strongest is never strong enough to be always the master, unless he transforms his strength into right, and obedience into duty.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau · The Social Contract, I, 3

Provided a man is not mad, he can be cured of every folly but vanity.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau · Émile; or, On Education, IV

I propose to show my fellows a man as nature made him, and this man shall be myself.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau · Confessions (1781–1788), bk. I

Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau · The Social Contract (1762), I, ch. 1

Good laws lead to the making of better ones; bad ones bring about worse.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau · The Social Contract, III, 15

In the strict sense of the term, a true democracy has never existed, and never will exist.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau · The Social Contract, III, 4

What then is this marvelous book? Is it Aristotle? Is it Pliny, is it Buffon? No—it is Robinson Crusoe.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau · Émile; or, On Education, III

Money is the seed of money, and the first guinea is sometimes more difficult to acquire than the second million.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau · Discourse upon the Origin and Foundation of the Inequality Among Mankind

Remorse sleeps during a prosperous period but wakes up in adversity.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau · Confessions, II

People who know little are usually great talkers, while men who know much say little.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau · Émile; or, On Education, I

Man was born free, and everywhere he is in chains.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau · The source reads: “L'homme est nè libre, et partout il est dans les fers. Man was born free, and everywhere he is in chains.”

Hatred, as well as love, renders its votaries credulous.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau · Confessions, V

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