Quotes from Jean-Jacques Rousseau

The second essential rule of public economy is no less important than the first. If you would have the general will accomplished, bring all the particular wills into conformity with it; in other words, as virtue is nothing more than this conformity of the particular wills with the general will, establish the reign of virtue.

Non, il n'y a point de jouissances pareilles à celles que peut donner une honnête femme qu'on aime ; tout est faveur auprès d'elle.

People think they come together in the spectacle, and it is here that they are isolated.

The first is that the individual forming part of a crowd acquires, solely from numerical considerations, a sentiment of invincible power which allows him to yield to instincts which, had he been alone, he would perforce have kept under restraint. He will be the less disposed to check himself from the consideration that, a crowd being anonymous, and in consequence irresponsible, the sentiment of responsibility which always controls individuals disappears entirely.

Gli animali che voi mangiate non sono quelli che ne divorano altri; voi non mangiate gli animali carnivori, bensì li utilizzate come modelli. Voi siete affamati unicamente delle creature dolci e gentili che non fanno alcun male a nessuno, che vi seguono, che vi servono, e che sono da voi divorate quale ricompensa ai servigi che vi rendono

If instead of making a child stick to his books I employ him in a workshop, his hands work for the development of his mind. While he fancies himself a workman he is becoming a philosopher.

He is no longer himself, but has become an automaton who has ceased to be guided by his will.

Je me voyais au déclin d'une vie innocente et infortunée l'âme encore pleine de sentiments vivaces et l'esprit encore orné de quelques fleurs, mais déjà flétries par la tristesse et desséchées par les ennuis. Seul et délaissé, je sentais venir le froid des premières glaces, et mon imagination tarissant ne peuplait plus ma solitude d'êtres formés selon mon cÅ"ur. Je me disais en soupirant : qu'ai-je fait ici-bas !

Could integrity be the daughter of ignorance? Could knowledge and virtue be incompatible? What consequences could we not draw from these opinions? But to reconcile these apparent contradictions, it is necessary only to examine closely the vanity and the emptiness of those proud titles which dazzle us and which we hand out so gratuitously to human learning.

Young teacher, pray consider this example, and remember that your lessons should always be in deeds rather than words, for children soon forget what they say or what is said to them, but not what they have done nor what has been done to them.

For in appearing to use only its rights, the Prince can very easily expand them and, on the pretext of public calm, prevent assemblies intended to restore good order; so that it takes advantage either of a silence that it prevents from being broken, or of the irregularities that it causes to be committed, and to punish those who dare speak.

Finally, when the State close to ruin subsists only on an illusory and vain form, when the social bond is broken in all hearts, when the barest interest brazenly assumes the sacred name of public good; then the general will grows mute, everyone, prompted by secret motives, no more states opinions as a Citizen than if the State had never existed, and iniquitous decrees with no other goal than particular interest are falsely passed under the name of Laws.

L'argent qu'on possède est l'instrument de la liberté ; celui qu'on pourchasse est celui de la servitude.

Je suis moins tenté de l'argent que des choses, parce qu'entre l'argent et la possession désirée il y a toujours un intermédiaire ; au lieu qu'entre la chose même et sa jouissance il n'y en a point.

I do not like verbal explanations. Young people pay little heed to them, nor do they remember them. Things! Things! I cannot repeat it too often. We lay too much stress upon words; we teachers babble, and our scholars follow our example.

Teach by doing whenever you can, and only fall back upon words when doing is out of the question.

In giving too much weight to prudence one doesn't make enough allowance for the possibility of good luck.

Maintenant qu'il n'y a plus et qu'il ne peut plus y avoir de Religion nationale exclusive, on doit tolérer toutes celles qui tolerent les autres, autant que leurs dogmes n'ont rien de contraire aux devoirs du Citoyen. Mais quiconque ose dire, hors de l'Eglise point de Salut, doit être chassé de l'Etat; à moins que l'Etat ne soit l'Eglise, et que le Prince ne soit le Pontife. Un tel dogme n'est bon que dans un Gouvernement Théocratique.

Es la humanidad pura la que me da cobijo.

La vertu ne nous coûte que par notre faute, et si nous voulions être toujours sages, rarement aurions-nous besoin d'être vertueux.

Go into the woods to lose sight and memory of the crimes of your contemporaries.

La tyrannie de mon maître finit par me rendre insupportable le travail que j'aurais aimé, et par me donner des vices que j'aurais haïs

Si c'est la raison qui fait l'homme, c'est le sentiment qui le conduit.

There are in all ages men born to be in bondage to the opinions of the society in which they live.