Quotes from Jean-Jacques Rousseau

He who has the base necessities of life should pay nothing; taxation on him who has a surplus may, if need be; extend to everything beyond necessities.

Girls must be thwarted early in life.

Or, rather, let us be more simple and less vain.

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.

I undertake the same project as Montaigne, but with an aim contrary to his own: for he wrote his Essays only for others, and I write my reveries only for myself.

I have always said and felt that true enjoyment can not be described.

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.

No true believer could be intolerant or a persecutor. If I were a magistrate and the law carried the death penalty against atheists, I would begin by sending to the stake whoever denounced another.

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.

The strongest is never strong enough to be always the master, unless he transforms strength into right, and obedience into duty.

The strength of the people is effective only if it is concentrated; it evaporates and is lost when it is dispersed, just as gunpowder scattered on the ground ignites only grain by grain.

I hate books; they only teach people to talk about what they don't understand.

There is a period in life when we go backwards as we advance.

To live is not breathing it is action.

Our greatest evils flow from ourselves.

We do not know what is really good or bad fortune.

Man was born free, and he is everywhere in chains.

Singing and dancing alone will not advance one in the world. [Fr., Qui bien chante et bien danse fait un metier qui peu avance.]

But remain the teacher of the young teachers. Advise and direct us, and we will be ready to learn. I will have need of you as long as I live.

Our will is always for our own good, but we do not always see what that is.

The English think they are free. They are free only during the election of members of parliament.

All of my misfortunes come from having thought too well of my fellows.

It is a mania shared by philosophers of all ages to deny what exists and to explain what does not exist.

The person who has lived the most is not the one with the most years but the one with the richest experiences.