Rousseau, Jean Jacques quotes
1712-1778 Swiss Political Philosopher Educationist EssayistEndurance and to be able to endure is the first lesson a child should learn because it s the one they will most need to know.
Rousseau, Jean Jacques
Endurance
Conscience is the voice of the soul; the passions of the body.
Rousseau, Jean Jacques
Conscience
Great men never make bad use of their superiority. They see it and feel it and are not less modest. The more they have, the more they know their own deficiencies.
Rousseau, Jean Jacques
Greatness
Let the trumpet of the day of judgment sound when it will, I shall appear with this book in my hand before the Sovereign Judge, and cry with a loud voice, This is my work, there were my thoughts, and thus was I. I have freely told both the good and the bad, have hid nothing wicked, added nothing good.
Rousseau, Jean Jacques
Confession
It is not the criminal things that are hardest to confess, but the ridiculous and the shameful.
Rousseau, Jean Jacques
Confession
The English people believes itself to be free; it is gravely mistaken; it is free only during election of members of parliament; as soon as the members are elected, the people is enslaved; it is nothing. In the brief moment of its freedom, the English people makes such a use of that freedom that it deserves to lose it.
Rousseau, Jean Jacques
Elections
The greatest braggarts are usually the biggest cowards.
Rousseau, Jean Jacques
Coward and Cowardice
With children use force with men reason; such is the natural order of things. The wise man requires no law.
Rousseau, Jean Jacques
Correction
Temperance and labor are the two real physicians of man.
Rousseau, Jean Jacques
Doctors
Nothing is less in our power than the heart, and far from commanding we are forced to obey it.
Rousseau, Jean Jacques
Heart
Fame is but the breath of people, and that often unwholesome.
Rousseau, Jean Jacques
Fame
Base souls have no faith in great individuals.
Rousseau, Jean Jacques
Faith
A feeble body weakens the mind.
Rousseau, Jean Jacques
Health
Our greatest evils flow from ourselves.
Rousseau, Jean Jacques
Evil
The thirst after happiness is never extinguished in the heart of man.
Rousseau, Jean Jacques
Happiness
The English think they are free. They are free only during the election of members of parliament.
Rousseau, Jean Jacques
Freedom
Whoever blushes confesses guilt, true innocence never feels shame.
Rousseau, Jean Jacques
Guilt
Man is born free, yet he is everywhere in chains.
Rousseau, Jean Jacques
Freedom
Free people, remember this maxim: We may acquire liberty, but it is never recovered if it is once lost.
Rousseau, Jean Jacques
Freedom
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.
Rousseau, Jean Jacques
Government
A country cannot subsist well without liberty, nor liberty without virtue.
Rousseau, Jean Jacques
Freedom
Gratitude is a duty which ought to be paid, but which none have a right to expect.
Rousseau, Jean Jacques
Gratitude
We do not know what is really good or bad fortune.
Rousseau, Jean Jacques
Fortune
Every man has the right to risk his own life in order to save it.
Rousseau, Jean Jacques
Life and Living
Do not judge, and you will never be mistaken.
Rousseau, Jean Jacques
Judgment and Judges
Good laws lead to the making of better ones; bad ones bring about worse.
Rousseau, Jean Jacques
Laughter
Plant and your spouse plants with you; weed and you weed alone.
Rousseau, Jean Jacques
Marriage
Our affections as well as our bodies are in perpetual flux.
Rousseau, Jean Jacques
Love
Insults are the arguments employed by those who are in the wrong.
Rousseau, Jean Jacques
Insults
To live is not breathing it is action.
Rousseau, Jean Jacques
Life and Living
The person who is slowest in making a promise is most faithful in its performance.
Rousseau, Jean Jacques
Integrity
Patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet.
Rousseau, Jean Jacques
Patience
Falsehood has an infinity of combinations, but truth has only one mode of being.
Rousseau, Jean Jacques
Truth
We pity in others only the those evils which we ourselves have experienced.
Rousseau, Jean Jacques
Sympathy
Nature never deceives us; it is we who deceive ourselves.
Rousseau, Jean Jacques
Truth
The English are predisposed to pride, the French to vanity.
Rousseau, Jean Jacques
Nationalities and Nationalism
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.
Rousseau, Jean Jacques
Men
Take from the philosopher the pleasure of being heard and his desire for knowledge ceases.
Rousseau, Jean Jacques
Philosophers and Philosophy
Most nations, as well as people are impossible only in their youth; they become incorrigible as they grow older.
Rousseau, Jean Jacques
Nations
All of my misfortunes come from having thought too well of my fellows.
Rousseau, Jean Jacques
Misfortunes
Those that are most slow in making a promise are the most faithful in the performance of it.
Rousseau, Jean Jacques
Promises
We should not teach children the sciences; but give them a taste for them.
Rousseau, Jean Jacques
Motivation
There are two things to be considered with regard to any scheme. In the first place, Is it good in itself? In the second, Can it be easily put into practice?
Rousseau, Jean Jacques
Projects
Money is the seed of money, and the first guinea is sometimes more difficult to acquire than the second million.
Rousseau, Jean Jacques
Money
Although modesty is natural to man, it is not natural to children. Modesty only begins with the knowledge of evil.
Rousseau, Jean Jacques
Modesty
People who know little are usually great talkers, while men who know much say little.
Rousseau, Jean Jacques
Speakers and Speaking
Slaves lose everything in their chains, even the desire of escaping from them.
Rousseau, Jean Jacques
Slavery
A man says what he knows, a woman says what will please.
Rousseau, Jean Jacques
Words
Absolute silence leads to sadness. It is the image of death.
Rousseau, Jean Jacques
Silence
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.
Rousseau, Jean Jacques
Secrets
I may not be better than other people, but at least I m different.
Rousseau, Jean Jacques
Uniqueness
Take the course opposite to custom and you will almost always do well.
Rousseau, Jean Jacques
Risk
I have suffered too much in this world not to hope for another.
Rousseau, Jean Jacques
Suffering
Remorse sleeps during prosperity but awakes bitter consciousness during adversity.
Rousseau, Jean Jacques
Repentance
To endure is the first thing that a child ought to learn, and that which he will have the most need to know.
Rousseau, Jean Jacques
Adversity
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.
Rousseau, Jean Jacques
Education
Childhood is the sleep of reason.
Rousseau, Jean Jacques
Children
We are born, so to speak, twice over; born into existence, and born into life; born a human being, and born a man.
Rousseau, Jean Jacques
Birth
The training of children is a profession, where we must know how to waste time in order to save it
Rousseau, Jean Jacques
Children
Adversity is a great teacher, but this teacher makes us pay dearly for its instruction; and often the profit we derive, is not worth the price we paid.
Rousseau, Jean Jacques
Adversity
Heroes are not known by the loftiness of their carriage; the greatest braggarts are generally the merest cowards.
Rousseau, Jean Jacques
Heroes and Heroism
Our will is always for our own good, but we do not always see what that is.
Rousseau, Jean Jacques
Goodness
The person who has lived the most is not the one with the most years but the one with the richest experiences.
Rousseau, Jean Jacques
Age and Aging
I have always said and felt that true enjoyment can not be described.
Rousseau, Jean Jacques
Enjoyment
How many famous and high-spirited heroes have lived a day too long?
Rousseau, Jean Jacques
Heroes and Heroism
It is too difficult to think nobly when one thinks only of earning a living.
Rousseau, Jean Jacques
Work
Virtue is a state of war, and to live in it we have always to combat with ourselves.
Rousseau, Jean Jacques
Virtue
What wisdom can you find that is greater than kindness?
Rousseau, Jean Jacques
Wisdom
As long as there are rich people in the world, they will be desirous of distinguishing themselves from the poor.
Rousseau, Jean Jacques
Wealth