Quotes from Jean-Jacques Rousseau

We should not, with Warburton, conclude from this that politics and religion have among us a common object, but that, in the first periods of nations, the one is used as an instrument for the other.

I call every man intolerant from principle, who conceives no man can be a man of virtue and probity, who does not believe exactly what he does, and unmercifully consigns to perdition all those who do not think like himself. On Providence

Deri tani kam parë shumë maska, kur do të shoh fytyra njerëzish?

Happy am I, for every time I meditate on governments, I always find new reasons in my inquiries for loving my own country.

La force a fait les premiers esclaves, leur lâcheté les a perpétués.

One always wants what is good for oneself, but one does not always see it. The people is never corrupted, but it is often fooled, and only then does it appear to want what is bad.

Le plus fort n'est jamais assez fort pour être toujours le maître, s'il ne transforme sa force en droit et l'obéissance en devoir.

Les peuples une fois accoutumés à des maîtres ne sont plus en état de s'en passer. S'ils tentent de secouer le joug, ils s'éloignent d'autant plus de la liberté, que, prenant pour elle une licence effrénée qui lui est opposée, leurs révolutions les livrent presque toujours à des séducteurs qui ne font qu'aggraver leurs chaînes.

Tout est bien sortant des mains de l'Auteur des choses, tout dégénère entre les mains de l'homme.

Ä°nançlar?na egemen olan gereksinimleri, ÅŸuna ya da buna inand?rmaktaki ç?karlar?, kendilerinin neye inand?klar?n? öÄŸrenmeye engel oluyor.

Cuando hay que hacer lo contrario de mi voluntad, no lo hago, ocurra lo que ocurra; tampoco hago mi voluntad, porque soy débil. Me abstengo de actuar: dado que toda mi debilidad es para la acción, toda mi fuerza es negativa, y todos mis pecados son de omisión, raramente de comisión.

No sé muy bien qué clase de jerga científica, más despreciable aún que la ignorancia, había usurpado el nombre a la sabiduría y para impedir su vuelta le ponía obstáculos casi insalvables. Se

IN order to discover the rules of society best suited to nations, a superior intelligence beholding all the passions of men without experiencing any of them would be needed.

Plus le corps est faible, plus il commande ; plus il est fort, plus il obéit.

There is, I feel, an age at which an individual man would want to stop. You will seek the age at which you would want your species to have stopped. Dissatisfied with your present state for reasons that portend even greater grounds for dissatisfaction for your unhappy posterity, perhaps you would like to be able to go backwards in time.

Les villes sont le gouffre de l'espèce humaine.

Las galas no tienen nada que ver con la virtud, que es la fuerza y el vigor del alma. El hombre de bien es un atleta que se complace en combatir desnudo: desprecia todos los viles ornatos que estorbarían la utilización de sus fuerzas y que no han sido inventados en su mayoría sino para esconder alguna deformidad.

El verdadero objeto de mis confesiones es hacer comprender exactamente mi interior en todas las situaciones.

L'homme vraiment libre ne veut que ce qu'il peut, et fait ce qu'il lui plaît.

With the poet, it is gold and silver, but with the philosopher it is iron and corn, which have civilized men, and ruined mankind.

When a man is set in authority over others, everything conspires to rob him of his sense of justice and reason.

I can understand how it is that city-dwellers, who see only walls and streets and crimes, have so little religion. But I cannot understand how those who live in the country, and the solitary especially, can be lacking in faith. How is it that their souls are not raised in ecstasy a hundred times a day to the Author of the wonders that strike their eyes?

Di solito si ottiene con tutta sicurezza e assai presto ciò che non si ha fretta di ottenere.

What man loses by the social contract is his natural liberty and an unlimited right to everything he tries to get and succeeds in getting; what he gains is civil liberty and the proprietorship of all he possesses.