Quotes by Jean-Jacques Rousseau

About Jean-Jacques Rousseau:

Jean-Jacques Rousseau was a philosopher, writer, and composer of the 18th century. His political philosophy influenced the Enlightenment in France and across Europe, as well as aspects of the French Revolution and the overall development of modern political and educational thought.
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Ordinary readers, forgive my paradoxes: one must make them when one reflects; and whatever you may say, I prefer being a man with paradoxes than a man with prejudices.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

I long remained a child, and I am still one in many respects.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Religious persecutors are not believers, they are rascals.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Fame is but the breath of people, and that often unwholesome.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

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.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

I only see clearly what I remember.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Whoever blushes is already guilty; true innocence is ashamed of nothing.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Man was born free, and he is everywhere in chains. Those who think themselves the masters of others are indeed greater slaves than they.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

I am not worried about pleasing clever minds or fashionable people. In every period there will be men fated to be governed by the opinions of their century, their country, and their society. For that very reason, a freethinker or philosopher today wo...

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Teach your scholar to observe the phenomena of nature; you will soon rouse his curiosity, but if you would have it grow, do not be in too great a hurry to satisfy this curiosity. Put the problems before him and let him solve them himself. Let him kno...

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

The first man, who, after enclosing a piece of ground, took it into his head to say, "This is mine," and found people simple enough to believe him, was the true founder of civil society. How many crimes, how many wars, how many murders, how many misf...

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Civilization is a hopeless race to discover remedies for the evils it produces.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Ancient politicians talked incessantly about morality and virtue; our politicians talk only about business and money. One will tell you that in a particular country a man is worth the sum he could be sold for in Algiers; another, by following this ca...

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

When I stay in one Place, I can hardly think at all; my body had to be on the move to set my mind going." Jean-Jacques Rousseau.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Being wealthy isn't just a question of having lots of money. It's a question of what we want. Wealth isn't an absolute, it's relative to desire. Every time we seek something that we can't afford, we can be counted as poor, how much money we may actua...

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

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

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

I perceive God everywhere in His works. I sense Him in me; I see Him all around me.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

I say to myself: "Who are you to measure infinite power?

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Die Freiheit des Menschen liegt nicht darin, dass er tun kann, was er will, sondern dass er nicht tun muss, was er nicht will.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

I prefer liberty with danger than peace with slavery.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Liberty is like those solid and tasty foods or those full-bodied wines which are appropriate for nourishing and strengthening robust constitutions that are used to them, but which overpower, ruin and intoxicate the weak and delicate who are not suite...

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Author Bio

  • NameJean-Jacques Rousseau
  • DescriptionGenevan philosopher
  • BornJune 28, 1712
  • DiedJuly 2, 1778
  • CountryFrance; Switzerland
  • ProfessionPhilosopher; Botanist; Composer; Choreographer; Writer; Musicologist; Literary; Musician; Novelist; Autobiographer; Music Theorist