I may be asked whether I am a prince or a legislator that I should be writing about politics. I answer no: and indeed that is my reason for doing so. If I were a prince or a legislator I should not waste my time saying what ought to be done; I should do it or keep silent.

— Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Jean-Jacques Rousseau Quotes

The money which a man possesses is the instrument of freedom; that which we eagerly pursue is the instrument of slavery. Therefore I hold fast to that which I have, and desire nothing.

— Jean-Jacques Rousseau

If Sparta and Rome perished, what state can hope to live forever? Hence, if we wish to form a lasting institution, let us not think about making it eternal. In order to succeed we should not attempt the impossible, or flatter ourselves that we are giving the work of men a solidity that does not belong to human things.

— Jean-Jacques Rousseau

There is not a single ill-doer who could not be turned to some good. The State has no right to put to death, even for the sake of making an example, any one whom it can leave alive without danger.

— Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Force is a physical power; I do not see how its effects could produce morality. To yield to force is an act of necessity, not of will; it is at best an act of prudence. In what sense can it be a moral duty?

— Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Respetad a la infancia y no os deis prisa en juzgarla ni para el bien ni para el mal. Dejad.

— Jean-Jacques Rousseau

We seek knowledge only because we desire enjoyment, and it is impossible to conceive why a person who has neither desires nor fears would take the trouble to reason.

— Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Emerging society gave way to the most horrible state of war; since the human race, vilified and desolated, was no longer able to retrace its steps or give up the unfortunate acquisitions it had made, and since it labored only toward its shame by abusing the faculties that honor it, it brought itself to the brink of its ruin. Horrified by the newness of the ill, both the poor man and the rich man hope to flee from wealth, hating what they once had prayed for.

— Jean-Jacques Rousseau

The great secret of education is to use exercise of mind and body as relaxation one to the other.

— Jean-Jacques Rousseau

I may be asked whether I am a prince or a legislator that I should be writing about politics. I answer no: and indeed that is my reason for doing so. If I were a prince or a legislator I should not waste my time saying what ought to be done; I should do it or keep silent.

— Jean-Jacques Rousseau

War, then, is not a relation between men, but between states; in war individuals are enemies wholly by chance, not as men, not even as citizens, but only as soldiers; not as member of their country, but only as its defenders. In a word, a state can have as an enemy only another state, not men, becuase there can be no real relations between things possessing different intrinsic natures.

— Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Nations, like men, are teachable only in their youth; with age they become incorrigible. Once customs are established and prejudices rooted, reform is a dangerous and fruitless enterprise; a people cannot bear to see its evils touched, even if only to be eradicated.

— Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Todo hombre nacido en la esclavitud, nace para la esclavitud; nada.

— Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Toda la diferencia consiste en que, en una familia, el amor paternal recompensa al padre de los cuidados que prodiga a sus hijos, en tanto que en el Estado el placer de mandar suple el amor que el jefe no siente por sus gobernados.

— Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Wees minnaar van een ziel.

— Jean-Jacques Rousseau

No se deben dar preceptos, sino hacer de manera que los encuentre el alumno.

— Jean-Jacques Rousseau

I ask: which of the two, civil or natural life, is more likely to become insufferable to those who live it? We see about us practically no people who do not complain about their existence; many even deprive themselves of it to the extent they are able, and the combination of divine and human laws is hardly enough to stop this disorder. I ask: has anyone ever heard of a savage man who was living in liberty ever dreaming of complaining about his life and of killing himself?

— Jean-Jacques Rousseau

In instinct alone, man had everything he needed in order to live in the state of nature; in a cultivated reason, he has only what he needs to live in society.

— Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Savage man, once he has eaten, is at peace with all of nature and the friend of all his fellow humans. Is.

— Jean-Jacques Rousseau

No hay derecho a matar al enemigo sino en el caso de no poderle hacer esclavo. Luego, el derecho de hacerle esclavo no viene del derecho de matarle. Por lo tanto, es un cambio inicuo hacerle comprar a costa de su libertad una vida sobre la cual nadie tiene derecho.

— Jean-Jacques Rousseau

If then the people promises simply to obey, by that very act it dissolves itself and loses what makes it a people; the moment a master exists, there is no longer a Sovereign, and from that moment the body politic has ceased to exist.

— Jean-Jacques Rousseau
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