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

Jean-Jacques Rousseau Quotes

My lack of success with women has always come from loving them too much.

— Jean-Jacques Rousseau

You must give your own time, attention, affection, your very self; for whatever you do, people always perceive that your money is not you.

— Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Never in a monarchy can the opulence of an individual put him above the prince; but, in a republic, it can easily put him above the laws. Then the government no longer has force, and the rich are always the true sovereign.

— Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Reconcile those who are at strife, prevent lawsuits; incline children to duty, fathers to kindness; promote happy marriages; prevent annoyances; freely use the credit of your pupil’s parents on behalf of the weak who cannot obtain justice, the weak who are oppressed by the strong. Be just, human, kindly. Do.

— Jean-Jacques Rousseau

It should not be thought, moreover, that this manner of thinking is peculiar to Catholics; it is that of every dogmatic religion in which belief is made into the essential thing rather than deeds.

— Jean-Jacques Rousseau

As a result of quarrels, blows, furtive and poorly chosen readings, my disposition became taciturn, wild, my head began to be spoiled, and I lived like a true werewolf.

— Jean-Jacques Rousseau

I found that stealing and being beaten went together, and in some way made up a single condition, and that by fulfilling the part of that condition that depended on me, I could leave the care of the other part to my master. From this idea, I set out to steal more calmly than before. I said to myself, “What will come of it in the end? I will be beaten. So be it: that’s what I am made for.

— Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Wise men, if they try to speak their language to the common herd instead of its own, cannot possibly make themselves understood.

— Jean-Jacques Rousseau

The end of this speech cruelly belied the brilliant hopes given to me by the beginning. “What, always a lackey?” I said to myself with a bitter disdain that confidence soon erased. I felt myself too little made for that place to fear that they would leave me there.

— Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Then, turning toward me, he said to me, “My child, in almost everything the beginnings are rough; however yours will not be very much so. Be prudent, and seek to please everyone here; at present this is your sole business. For the rest, have courage; we want to take care of you.

— Jean-Jacques Rousseau

A man who lives ten years for himself and others without the help of doctors lives more for himself and others than one who spends thirty years as their victim.

— Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Your beginning,” he said to me, “is the rule of what will be required of you: seek to behave so as to do more afterwards, but watch out never to do less.

— Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Alas, it is when one is beginning to leave behind one’s mortal body that one is the most hindered by it!

— Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Jean-Jacques Rousseau was one of the most influential thinkers during the Enlightenment in eighteenth century Europe.

— Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Among the notable books of later times-we may say, without exaggeration, of all time – must be reckoned The Confessions of Jean Jacques Rousseau.

— Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Before putting up a large building, the architect surveys and tests the ground to see if it can support the weight; in the same way the wise legislator doesn’t start by laying down his good laws but by investigating whether the populace they are intended for is in a condition to receive them.

— Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Allowing that nature intended we should always enjoy good health, I dare almost affirm that a state of reflection is a state against nature, and that the man who meditates is a depraved animal.

— Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Each of us puts his person and all his power in common under the supreme direction of the general will, and, in our corporate capacity, we receive each member as an indivisible part of the whole.

— Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Self-love, which concerns itself only with ourselves, is content to satisfy our own needs; but selfishness, which is always comparing self with others, is never satisfied and never can be; for this feeling, which prefers ourselves to others, requires that they should prefer us to themselves, which is impossible.

— Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Hard to rouse and hard to restrain: that had been a constant trait in my character.

— Jean-Jacques Rousseau
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