Quotes from Jean Jacques Rousseau

Free people, remember this maxim: we may acquire liberty, but it is never recovered if it is once lost.

What wisdom can find that is greater than kindness?

I also realized that the philosophers, far from ridding me of my vain doubts, only multiplied the doubts that tormented me and failed to remove any one of them. So I chose another guide and said, Let me follow the Inner Light; it will not lead me so far astray as others have done, or if it does it will be my own fault, and I shall not go so far wrong if I follow my own illusions as if I trusted to their deceits

Take from the philosopher the pleasure of being heard and his desire for knowledge ceases.

Whoever blushes confesses guilt, true innocence never feels shame.

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

Force does not constitute right... obedience is due only to legitimate powers.

Although modesty is natural to man, it is not natural to children. Modesty only begins with the knowledge of evil.

Most nations, as well as people are impossible only in their youth; they become incorrigible as they grow older.

A man who is not a fool can rid himself of every folly except vanity.

A feeble body weakens the mind.

Slaves lose everything in their chains, even the desire of escaping from them.

Endurance 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.

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

Accent is the soul of language it gives to it both feeling and truth.

Appreciation starts from yourself, or from nobody at all.

As soon as any man says of the affairs of the State What does it matter to me the State may be given up for lost.

Being guided is not being manipulated. Being exploited is.

He who is slowest in making a promise is most faithful in its performance.

To renounce liberty is to renounce being a man, to surrender the rights of humanity and even its duties. For he who renounces everything no indemnity is possible. Such a renunciation is incompatible with man's nature to remove all liberty from his will is to remove all morality from his acts.

You don't have to dream when you habitually think good and do good.

Your first appearance, he said to me, is the gauge by which you will be measured; try to manage that you may go beyond yourself in after times, but beware of ever doing less.

People who know little are usually great talkers, while men who know much say little.

I know the feelings of my heart, and I know men. I am not made like any of those I have seen; I venture to believe that I am not made like any of those who are in existence. If I am not better, at least I am different. Whether Nature has acted rightly or wrongly in destroying the mould in which she cast me, can only be decided after I have been read.