Jean-Jacques Rousseau quotes

Born
28 June 1712, Geneva, Republic of Geneva.

Died
2 July 1778.

Occupation
Philosopher, writer, composer.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau was a Genevan philosopher, writer and composer.

Take the course opposite to custom and you will almost always do well.
– Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Gratitude is a duty which ought to be paid, but which none have a right to expect.
– Jean-Jacques Rousseau

I hate books; they only teach us to talk about things we know nothing about.
– Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Insults are the arguments employed by those who are in the wrong.
– Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Force does not constitute right… obedience is due only to legitimate powers.
– Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Virtue is a state of war, and to live in it we have always to combat with ourselves.
– Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Plant and your spouse plants with you; weed and you weed alone.
– Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Religious persecutors are not believers, they are rascals.
– Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Absolute silence leads to sadness. It is the image of death.
– Jean-Jacques Rousseau

The English are predisposed to pride, the French to vanity.
– Jean-Jacques Rousseau

The training of children is a profession, where we must know how to waste time in order to save it.
– Jean-Jacques Rousseau

I have always said and felt that true enjoyment can not be described.
– Jean-Jacques Rousseau

How many famous and high-spirited heroes have lived a day too long?
– Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Our greatest evils flow from ourselves.
– Jean-Jacques Rousseau

The person who has lived the most is not the one with the most years but the one with the richest experiences.
– Jean-Jacques Rousseau

The world of reality has its limits; the world of imagination is boundless.
– Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Happiness: a good bank account, a good cook, and a good digestion.
– Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Fame is but the breath of people, and that often unwholesome.
– Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Our affections as well as our bodies are in perpetual flux.
– Jean-Jacques Rousseau

I may be no better, but at least I am different.
– Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Man was born free, and he is everywhere in chains.
– Jean-Jacques Rousseau

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

Falsehood has an infinity of combinations, but truth has only one mode of being.
– Jean-Jacques Rousseau

I long remained a child, and I am still one in many respects.
– Jean-Jacques Rousseau

We are born, so to speak, twice over; born into existence, and born into life; born a human being, and born a man.
– Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Every man has the right to risk his own life in order to preserve it. Has it ever been said that a man who throws himself out the window to escape from a fire is guilty of suicide?
– Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Heroes are not known by the loftiness of their carriage; the greatest braggarts are generally the merest cowards.
– Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Nature never deceives us; it is we who deceive ourselves.
– Jean-Jacques Rousseau

A feeble body weakens the mind.
– Jean-Jacques Rousseau