Quotes by
Jean Jacques Rousseau |
1712-1778 , Swiss-French philosopher
Swiss-born philosopher, writer, and political theorist of the 18th century. His political philosophy influenced the Enlightenment in France and across Europe, as well as aspects of the French Revolution and the overall development of modern political and educational thought. | 37 quotes | 9,804 visits |
Quotations
| • | There are always four sides to a story: your side, their side, the truth and what really happened. 42 |
| • | Freedom is the power to choose our own chains. 33 |
| • | I prefer liberty with danger than peace with slavery. 20 |
| • | What wisdom can you find greater than kindness. 18 |
| • | The truth brings no man a fortune. 15 |
| • | The freedom of Mankind does not lie in the fact that can do what we want, but that we do not have to do that which we do not want. 13 |
| • | It is unnatural for a majority to rule, for a majority can seldom be organized and united for specific action, and a minority can. 11 |
| • | Man is born free; and everywhere he is in chains. 10 |
| • | Religious persecutors are not believers, they are rascals. 10 |
| • | Those people who treat politics and morality separately will never understand either of them. 10 |
| • | I perceive God everywhere in His works. I sense Him in me; I see Him all around me. 10 |
| • | To be sane in a world of madman is in itself madness. 10 |
| • | The world of reality has its limits; the world of imagination is boundless. 9 |
| • | Slaves lose everything in their chains, even the desire of escaping from them: they love their servitude. 8 |
| • | Nature never deceives us; it is we who deceive ourselves. 8 |
| • | Finance is a slave's word. 8 |
| • | It is too difficult to think nobly when one thinks only of earning a living. 8 |
| • | As soon as the nations took to making God speak, every one made him speak in his own fashion, and made him say what he himself wanted. Had they listened only to what God says in the heart of man, there would have been but one religion upon earth. 7 |
| • | When man is content to be himself he is strong indeed; when he strives to be more than man he is weak indeed. 7 |
| • | In the strict sense of the term, a true democracy has never existed, and never will exist. It is against natural order that the great number should govern and that the few should be governed. 6 |
| • | The strongest is never strong enough always to be master, unless he transforms strength into right, and obedience into duty. 6 |
| • | Insults are the arguments employed by those who are in the wrong. 6 |
| • | Those that are most slow in making a promise are the most faithful in the performance of it. 6 |
| • | The only moral lesson which is suited for a child -the most important lesson for every time of life- is this: “Never hurt anybody.” 6 |
| • | That man is truly free who desires what he is able to perform, and does what he desires. 5 |
| • | I may be no better, but at least I am different. 5 |
| • | All my misfortunes come of having thought too well of my fellows. 5 |
| • | Every person has a right to risk their own life for the preservation of it. 5 |
| • | People who know little are usually great talkers, while men who know much say little. 5 |
| • | The happiest is he who suffers least; the most miserable is he who enjoys least. 4 |
| • | Tranquillity is found also in dungeons; but is that enough to make them desirable places to live in? 4 |
| • | Accent is the soul of language; it gives to it both feeling and truth. 4 |
| • | I hate books, for they only teach people to talk about what they don't understand. 4 |
| • | Happiness: a good bank account, a good cook, and a good digestion. 4 |
| • | She was dull, unattractive, couldn't tell the time, count money or tie her own shoe laces... But I loved her. 4 |
| • | Remorse sleeps during a prosperous period but wakes up in adversity. 3 |
| • | To write a good love letter, you ought to begin without knowing what you mean to say, and to finish without knowing what you have written. 3 |
