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3654367
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I would rather be a man of paradoxes than a man of prejudices.
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prejudice
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Jean-Jacques Rousseau |
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9932041
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The first person who, having enclosed a plot of land, 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. What crimes, wars, murders, what miseries and horrors would the human race have been spared, had some one pulled up the stakes or filled in the ditch and cried out to his fellow men: "Do not listen to this imposter. You are lost if you forget that the fruits of t..
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Jean-Jacques Rousseau |
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26202f8
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It is too difficult to think nobly when one thinks only of earning a living.
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poverty
philosophy
noble
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Jean-Jacques Rousseau |
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56b28c4
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Why should we build our happiness on the opinons of others, when we can find it in our own hearts?
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Jean-Jacques Rousseau |
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8315426
|
Every person has a right to risk their own life for the preservation of it.
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wisdom
inspirational
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Jean Jacques Rousseau |
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0b359b0
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Every man having been born free and master of himself, no one else may under any pretext whatever subject him without his consent. To assert that the son of a slave is born a slave is to assert that he is not born a man.
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Jean-Jacques Rousseau |
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50cf732
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They say that Caliph Omar, when consulted about what had to be done with the library of Alexandria, answered as follows: 'If the books of this library contain matters opposed to the Koran, they are bad and must be burned. If they contain only the doctrine of the Koran, burn them anyway, for they are superfluous.' Our learned men have cited this reasoning as the height of absurdity. However, suppose Gregory the Great was there instead of Oma..
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library
alexandria
caliph
caliph-omar
gregory-the-great
koran
library-of-alexandria
pontiff
quran
intolerance
science-vs-religion
gospel
islam
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Jean-Jacques Rousseau |
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f5aaa35
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I have never thought, for my part, that man's freedom consists in his being able to do whatever he wills, but that he should not, by any human power, be forced to do what is against his will.
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freedom
liberty
will
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Jean-Jacques Rousseau |
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d41f675
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in respect of riches, no citizen shall ever be wealthy enough to buy another, and none poor enough to be forced to sell himself.
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Jean-Jacques Rousseau |
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187d4c4
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In truth, laws are always useful to those with possessions and harmful to those who have nothing; from which it follows that the social state is advantageous to men only when all possess something and none has too much.
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Jean-Jacques Rousseau |
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d6be5a8
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The first man who, having fenced in a piece of land, said "This is mine," and found people naive enough to believe him, that man was the true founder of civil society. From how many crimes, wars, and murders, from how many horrors and misfortunes might not any one have saved mankind, by pulling up the stakes, or filling up the ditch, and crying to his fellows: Beware of listening to this impostor; you are undone if you once forget that the ..
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politics
inequality
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Jean-Jacques Rousseau |
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210dcf2
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There are times when I am so unlike myself that I might be taken for someone else of an entirely opposite character.
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personality
humorous
flexibility
personal-development
self
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Jean-Jacques Rousseau |
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e721cde
|
To live is not to breathe but to act. It is to make use of our organs, our senses, our faculties, of all the parts of ourselves which give us the sentiment of our existence. The man who has lived the most is not he who has counted the most years but he who has most felt life.
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enlightenment
philosophy
rousseau
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Jean-Jacques Rousseau |
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7e95365
|
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."
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responsibility
de-politicization
participation
democracy
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Jean-Jacques Rousseau |
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69b9ea1
|
In any case, frequent punishments are a sign of weakness or slackness in the government. There is no man so bad that he cannot be made good for something. No man should be put to death, even as an example, if he can be left to live without danger to society.
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government
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Jean-Jacques Rousseau |
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3e11fd9
|
It is as if my heart and my brain did not belong to the same person. Feelings come quicker than lightning and fill my soul, but they bring me no illumination; they burn me and dazzle me.
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Jean-Jacques Rousseau |
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22acd81
|
My illusions about the world caused me to think that in order to benefit by my reading I ought to possess all the knowledge the book presupposed. I was very far indeed from imagining that often the author did not possess it himself, but had extracted it from other books, as and when he needed it. This foolish conviction forced me to stop every moment, and to rush incessantly from one book to another; sometimes before coming to the tenth pag..
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Jean-Jacques Rousseau |
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d3f219c
|
It is easier to conquer than to administer. With enough leverage, a finger could overturn the world; but to support the world, one must have the shoulders of Hercules.
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Jean-Jacques Rousseau |
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c7d0afc
|
Hold childhood in reverence, and do not be in any hurry to judge it for good or ill. Leave exceptional cases to show themselves, let their qualities be tested and confirmed, before special methods are adopted. Give nature time to work before you take over her business, lest you interfere with her dealings. You assert that you know the value of time and are afraid to waste it. You fail to perceive that it is a greater waste of time to use it..
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reason
memory
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Jean-Jacques Rousseau |
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9aeeb91
|
The word 'slavery' and 'right' are contradictory, they cancel each other out. Whether as between one man and another, or between one man and a whole people, it would always be absurd to say: "I hereby make a covenant with you which is wholly at your expense and wholly to my advantage; I will respect it so long as I please and you shall respect it as long as I wish."
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Jean-Jacques Rousseau |
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f1f8f89
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The extreme inequality of our ways of life, the excess of idleness among some and the excess of toil among others, the ease of stimulating and gratifying our appetites and our senses, the over-elaborate foods of the rich, which inflame and overwhelm them with indigestion, the bad food of the poor, which they often go withotu altogether, so hat they over-eat greedily when they have the opportunity; those late nights, excesses of all kinds, i..
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man
nature
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Jean-Jacques Rousseau |
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3308255
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Once you teach people to say what they do not understand, it is easy enough to get them to say anything you like.
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Jean-Jacques Rousseau |
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8288ff0
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In all the ills that befall us, we are more concerned by the intention than the result. A tile that falls off a roof may injure us more seriously, but it will not wound us so deeply as a stone thrown deliberately by a malevolent hand. The blow may miss, but the intention always strikes home.
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malice
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Jean-Jacques Rousseau |
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6aa2119
|
A born king is a very rare being.
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Jean-Jacques Rousseau |
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c7e41ab
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In a well governed state, there are few punishments, not because there are many pardons, but because criminals are rare; it is when a state is in decay that the multitude of crimes is a guarantee of impunity.
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Jean-Jacques Rousseau |
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f16411a
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lqm` yryH Dmyrn wyj`ln nsh`r 'nn dy'man `l~ Hq. ysrWn 'n nfHm 'nsan l yjrw'wn `l~ rf` Swthm !
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Jean-Jacques Rousseau |
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fb0eecd
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'kbr stkhff blrb lys lGfl@ `nh, bl ltfkyr fyh bm l ylyq.
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Jean-Jacques Rousseau |
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6bb8634
|
If there were a nation of Gods, it would govern itself democratically. A government so perfect is not suited to men.
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politics
government
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Jean-Jacques Rousseau |
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95482fd
|
The indolence I love is not that of a lazy fellow who sits with his arms across in total inaction, and thinks no more than he acts, but that of a child which is incessantly in motion doing nothing, and that of a dotard who wanders from his subject. I love to amuse myself with trifles, by beginning a hundred things and never finishing one of them, by going or coming as I take either into my head, by changing my project at every instant, by f..
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Jean-Jacques Rousseau |
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a8c4dd2
|
To renounce liberty is to renounce being a man, to surrender the rights of humanity and even its duties.
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Jean-Jacques Rousseau |
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2b77d49
|
All wickedness comes from weakness. The child is wicked only because he is weak. Make him strong; he will be good. He who could do everything would never do harm.
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Jean-Jacques Rousseau |
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7d8eb44
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I believed that I was approaching the end of my days without having tasted to the full any of the pleasures for which my heart thirsted...without having ever tasted that passion which, through lack of an object, was always suppressed. ...The impossibility of attaining the real persons precipitated me into the land of chimeras; and seeing nothing that existed worthy of my exalted feelings, I fostered them in an ideal world which my creative ..
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philosophy
romantics
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Jean-Jacques Rousseau |
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eac9d8e
|
The people of England regards itself as free; but it is grossly mistaken; it is free only during the election of members of parliament. As soon as they are elected, slavery overtakes it, and it is nothing.
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Jean-Jacques Rousseau |
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63f69a3
|
The social pact, far from destroying natural equality, substitutes, on the contrary, a moral and lawful equality for whatever physical inequality that nature may have imposed on mankind; so that however unequal in strength and intelligence, men become equal by covenant and by right.
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Jean-Jacques Rousseau |
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dcca4b9
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To renounce freedom is to renounce one's humanity, one's rights as a man and equally one's duties.
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mankind
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Jean-Jacques Rousseau |
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c2c6572
|
Everything is in constant flux on this earth. Nothing keeps the same unchanging shape, and our affections, being attached to things outside us, necessarily change and pass away as they do. Always out ahead of us or lagging behind, they recall a past which is gone or anticipate a future which may never come into being; there is nothing solid there for the heart to attach itself to. Thus our earthly joys are almost without exception the creat..
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Jean-Jacques Rousseau |
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a4dcb69
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There is no evildoer who could not be made good for something.
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Jean Jacques Rousseau |
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597a697
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Nature made me happy and good, and if I am otherwise, it is society's fault.
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Jean-Jacques Rousseau |
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4485fb6
|
lqd wld lnsn ly`ml l lyfkr.. n ltfkyr l yj`l mnh l nsn t`ys wl yj`lh 'fDl w '`ql. n ltfkyr yj`lh yndm `l~ l'shy lty 'D`h w yHrmh mn ltmt` bHDrh . w ltfkyr yzyn lh lmstqbl lt`ys lyj`lh yHs bdhlk qbl wqw`h.. n ldrs@ tfsd 'khlqh w tmrD SHth w tHTm mzjh w tmy` Hjth.. w dh m knt t`lmh shyy' m fny 'jd 'nh tDr bh 'kthr mm t`lmh
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Jean-Jacques Rousseau |
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3795203
|
What, then, is the government? An intermediary body established between the subjects and the sovereign for their mutual communication, a body charged with the execution of the laws and the maintenance of freedom, both civil and political.
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Jean-Jacques Rousseau |
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7e6c16d
|
So finally we tumble into the abyss, we ask God why he has made us so feeble. But, in spite of ourselves, He replies through our consciences: 'I have made you too feeble to climb out of the pit, because i made you strong enough not to fall in.
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Jean-Jacques Rousseau |
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17adea2
|
There is no subjection so perfect as that which keeps the appearance of freedom.
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Jean-Jacques Rousseau |
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417ba7a
|
Ht~ lw kn fy ws` lflsf@ 'n yktshfw lHqyq@ mn mnhm yhtm bh? kl wHd mnhm y`lm 'n mqwlth lyst 'wthq t'Sylan mn Gyrh, lknh ytshbth bh l'nh mn bd`h. l wHd mnhm Ht~ lw tbyn lHq wmyzh `n lbTl, yfDl lHq ldhy 'bd`h Gyrh `n lbTl ldhy khtr`h hw. 'yn lfylswf ldhy ytwr` `n khd` lnw` lbshry n kn fy dhlk nqdh lsm`th? 'yn lfylswf ldhy fy qrr@ qlbh ytwkh~ Gyr lshhr@ wlnbwG? kl m ySbw lyh hw 'n ysmw `n l`m@, w'n yTfy' nwrh nwr 'qrnh. l yhmh sw~ mkhlf@ lGyr, ..
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Jean-Jacques Rousseau |
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d34318e
|
nz` mn qlb lnsn Hb ljml tslb lHy@ rw`th wjdhbyth.
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Jean-Jacques Rousseau |