Quotes from Jean-Jacques Rousseau

You fail to perceive that it is a greater waste of time to use it ill than to do nothing, and that a child ill taught is further from virtue than a child who has learnt nothing at all. You are afraid to see him spending his early years doing nothing. What! is it nothing to be happy, nothing to run and jump all day? He will never be so busy again all his life long.

Ben öÄŸrenmeyi baÅŸkalar?na öÄŸretmek için deÄŸil, kendimi bilmek için istedim.

Tutto è bene quando esce dalle mani dell'Autore delle cose, tutto degenera fra le mani dell'uomo.

There is, I feel, an age at which the individual man would want to stop: you will seek the age at which you would desire your Species had stopped. Discontented with your present state for reasons that foretell even greater discontents for your unhappy Posterity, perhaps you would want to be able to go backward in time. This sentiment must be the Eulogy of your first ancestors, the criticism of your contemporaries, and the dread of those who will have the unhappiness to live after you.

Il me semble que sous les ombrages d'une forêt je suis oublié, libre et paisible comme si je n'avais plus d'ennemis.

Toute passion est bonne quand on en est maître, mais mauvaise quand on en est assujetti.

Without the study of books, such a memory as the child may possess is not left idle; everything he sees and hears makes an impression on him, he keeps a record of men's sayings and doings, and his whole environment is the book from which he unconsciously enriches his memory, till his judgment is able to profit by it.

We pity in others only the those evils which we ourselves have experienced.

Jamás he conocido las pasiones más odiosas, nunca ha invadido mi corazón la envidia, la maldad, ni la venganza... en ocasiones la ira, pero no soy muy hábil y jamás guardo rencor.

Again I must enter into minute and detailed explanations. I hear my readers murmur, but I am prepared to meet their disapproval; I will not sacrifice the most important part of this book to your impatience. You may think me as long-winded as you please; I have my own opinion as to your complaints.

Le plus lent à promettre est toujours le plus fidèle à tenir.

Children's lies are therefore entirely the work of their teachers, and to teach them to speak the truth is nothing less than to teach them the art of lying. In your zeal to rule, control, and teach them, you never find sufficient means at your disposal. You wish to gain fresh influence over their minds by baseless maxims, by unreasonable precepts; and you would rather they knew their lessons and told lies, than leave them ignorant and truthful.

Never in a monarchy can the opulence of an individual put him above the prince; but, in a republic, it can easily put him above the laws. Then the government no longer has force, and the rich are always the true sovereign.

Putting the law above man is a problem in politics which I liken to that of squaring the circle in geometry.

En vérité, je ne songeais guère à faire ni comme les autres ni autrement qu'eux. Je désirais sincèrement de faire ce qui était bien.

Such as I was, I have declared myself; sometimes vile and despicable, at others, virtuous, generous and sublime.

c'est que si chaque homme pouvait lire dans les cœurs de tous les autres, il y aurait plus de gens qui voudraient descendre que de ceux qui voudraient monter.

The world of reality has its limits,the world of imagination is boundless.

You will never be free as long as there remains one Russian soldier in Poland and your freedom will always be threatened as long as Russia interferes in your affairs.

When studying the fundamental characteristics of a crowd we stated that it is guided almost exclusively by unconscious motives.

Jeune, vigoureux, plein de santé, de sécurité, de confiance en moi et aux autres, j'étais dans ce court, mais précieux moment de la vie, où sa plénitude expansive étend pour ainsi dire notre être par toutes nos sensations, et embellit à nos yeux la nature entière du charme de notre existence.

This very fact that crowds possess in common ordinary qualities explains why they can never accomplish acts demanding a high degree of intelligence. The decisions affecting matters of general interest come to by an assembly of men of distinction, but specialists in different walks of life, are not sensibly superior to the decisions that would be adopted by a gathering of imbeciles.

If you are willing to do only what's easy, life will be hard. But if you're willing to do what's hard, life will be easy.

On sent, je crois, qu'avoir de la religion, pour un enfant, et même pour un homme, c'est suivre celle où il est né. Quelquefois on en ôte ; rarement on y ajoute ; la foi dogmatique est un fruit de l'éducation.