45 Excellent Jean-Jacques Rousseau Quotes

He who is slowest to make a promise is always most faithful at keeping it.Emile, or On Education (1762), (Basic Books, ed. 1979), Book IV, Page 327

It is too difficult to think nobly when one only thinks for a living.Confessions of Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1782), (Penguin Books, ed. 1963), Part II, Book IX, Page 375

So long as chastity is preserved, it is respected; it is despised only after having been lost.Emile, or On Education (1762), (Basic Books, ed. 1979), Book IV, Page 324

Nature never deceives us. It is always we who deceive ourselves.Emile, or On Education (1762), (Basic Books, ed. 1979), Book III, Page 203

Man was born free, and everywhere he is in chains.The Social Contract, or Principles of Political Right (1762), (Wordsworth Editions Ltd., ed. 1998), Book I, Chapter 1, Page 5

Habit accustoms us to everything. What we see too much, we no longer imagine; and it is only imagination which makes us feel the ills of others.Emile, or On Education (1762), (Basic Books, ed. 1979), Book IV, Page 231

In a well-governed state there are few punishments, not because many pardons are granted, but because there are few criminals; the multitude of crimes ensures impunity when the state is decaying.The Social Contract, or Principles of Political Right (1762), (Wordsworth Editions Ltd., ed. 1998), Book II, Chapter 5, Page 36

Conscience is the voice of the soul; the passions are the voice of the body.Emile, or On Education (1762), (Basic Books, ed. 1979), Book IV, Page 286

You are lost, if you forget that the fruits of the earth belong equally to us all, and the earth itself to nobody!Discourse on Inequality (1755), (Dover Publications, ed. 2004), Part II, Page 27

Every man being born free and master of himself, no one can, under any pretext whatever, enslave him without his assent.The Social Contract, or Principles of Political Right (1762), (Wordsworth Editions Ltd., ed. 1998), Book IV, Chapter 2, Page 108

Slaves lose everything in their bonds, even the desire to escape from them.The Social Contract, or Principles of Political Right (1762), (Wordsworth Editions Ltd., ed. 1998), Book I, Chapter 2, Page 7

Whoever blushes is already guilty. True innocence is ashamed of nothing.Emile, or On Education (1762), (Basic Books, ed. 1979), Book IV, Page 217

Money is the seed of money, and the first gold crown is sometimes harder to acquire than the second million.Discourse on Political Economy (1755), (Oxford University Press, ed. 1994), Part III, Page 35

The happiest is he who suffers the least pain; the unhappiest is he who feels the least pleasure.Emile, or On Education (1762), (Basic Books, ed. 1979), Book II, Page 80

Money in one’s possession is the instrument of liberty; money one pursues is the symbol of servitude.Confessions of Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1782), (Penguin Books, ed. 1963), Part I, Book I, Page 46

We are born weak, we need strength; we are born totally unprovided, we need aid; we are born stupid, we need judgment. Everything we do not have at our birth and which we need when we are grown is given us by education.Emile, or On Education (1762), (Basic Books, ed. 1979), Book I, Page 38

Every man has a right to risk his own life in order to preserve it.The Social Contract, or Principles of Political Right (1762), (Wordsworth Editions Ltd., ed. 1998), Book II, Chapter 5, Page 35

Amour-propre produces more libertines than love does.Emile, or On Education (1762), (Basic Books, ed. 1979), Book IV, Page 331

It is a mania common to philosophers of all eras to deny what is, and to explain what is not.Julie, or the New Heloise (1761), (Dartmouth College, ed. 1997), Part VI, Letter XI, Page 597

Luxury is either the effect of wealth or renders it necessary; it corrupts both the rich and the poor, the former by possession, the latter by covetousness.The Social Contract, or Principles of Political Right (1762), (Wordsworth Editions Ltd., ed. 1998), Book III, Chapter 4, Page 68

Man says what he knows; woman says what pleases. He needs knowledge to speak; she needs taste.Emile, or On Education (1762), (Basic Books, ed. 1979), Book V, Page 376

No man has any natural authority over his fellow men.The Social Contract, or Principles of Political Right (1762), (Wordsworth Editions Ltd., ed. 1998), Book I, Chapter 4, Page 9

All passions are good when one remains their master; all are bad when one lets oneself be subjected to them.Emile, or On Education (1762), (Basic Books, ed. 1979), Book V, Page 445

Always asking others what we are and never daring to ask ourselves.Discourse on Inequality (1755), (New American Library, ed. 1974), Part II, Page 200

People who know little speak a great deal, and people who know a great deal speak little.Emile, or On Education (1762), (Basic Books, ed. 1979), Book IV, Page 336

Men in general are not this or that, they are what they are made to be.Julie, or the New Heloise (1761), (Dartmouth College, ed. 1997), Part VI, Letter XI, Page 60

The sole folly of which one cannot disabuse a man who is not mad is vanity.Emile, or On Education (1762), (Basic Books, ed. 1979), Book IV, Page 245

As to wealth, no citizen should be rich enough to be able to buy another, and none poor enough to be forced to sell himself.The Social Contract, or Principles of Political Right (1762), (Wordsworth Editions Ltd., ed. 1998), Book II, Chapter 11, Page 52

Definitions could be good if words were not used to make them.Emile, or On Education (1762), (Basic Books, ed. 1979), Book II, Page 108

Gratitude is indeed a duty which we are bound to pay, but which benefactors cannot exact.Discourse on Inequality (1755), (Dover Publications, ed. 2004), Part II, Page 42

The man who has lived the most is not he who has counted the most years but he who has most felt life.Emile, or On Education (1762), (Basic Books, ed. 1979), Book I, Page 42

The majority of nations, as well as of men, are tractable only in their youth; they become incorrigible as they grow old.The Social Contract, or Principles of Political Right (1762), (Wordsworth Editions Ltd., ed. 1998), Book II, Chapter 8, Page 44

As soon as people are accustomed to say words without understanding them, it is easy to make them say whatever one wants.Emile, or On Education (1762), (Basic Books, ed. 1979), Book IV, Page 256

I hate books. They only teach one to talk about what one does not know.Emile, or On Education (1762), (Basic Books, ed. 1979), Book III, Page 184

Freedom is found in no form of government; it is in the heart of the free man. He takes it with him everywhere.Emile, or On Education (1762), (Basic Books, ed. 1979), Book V, Page 473

Remorse sleeps while fate is kind but grows sharp in adversity.Confessions of Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1782), (Penguin Books, ed. 1963), Part I, Book II, Page 88

One cannot teach children the danger of lying to men without being aware of the greater danger, on the part of men, of lying to children. A single proved lie told by the master to the child would ruin forever the whole fruit of the education.Emile, or On Education (1762), (Basic Books, ed. 1979), Book IV, Page 216

Laws are always useful to those who possess and injurious to those that have nothing; whence it follows that the social state is advantageous to men only so far as they all have something, and none of them has too much.The Social Contract, or Principles of Political Right (1762), (Wordsworth Editions Ltd., ed. 1998), Book I, Chapter 9, Page 23

One pities in others only those ills from which one does not feel oneself exempt.Emile, or On Education (1762), (Basic Books, ed. 1979), Book IV, Page 224

The only thing we do not know is how to be ignorant of what we cannot know.Emile, or On Education (1762), (Basic Books, ed. 1979), Book IV, Page 268

I have never believed that man’s freedom consisted in doing what he wants, but rather in never doing what he does not want to do.Reveries of the Solitary Walker (1782), (Hackett, ed. 1979), Sixth Walk, Page 83

Although modesty is natural to the human species, naturally children have none. Modesty is born only with the knowledge of evil.Emile, or On Education (1762), (Basic Books, ed. 1979), Book IV, Page 217

Our passions are the principal instruments of our preservation. It is therefore, an enterprise as vain as it is ridiculous to want to destroy them.Emile, or On Education (1762), (Basic Books, ed. 1979), Book IV, 212

What wisdom is there for you save humanity?Emile, or On Education (1762), (Basic Books, ed. 1979), Book II, Page 79

The strongest man is never strong enough to be always master, unless he transforms his power into right, and obedience into duty.The Social Contract, or Principles of Political Right (1762), (Wordsworth Editions Ltd., ed. 1998), Book I, Chapter 3, Page 8

The world of reality has its limits; the world of imagination is boundless.No source

Insults are the arguments employed by those who are in the wrong.No source

Patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet.No source

To endure is the first thing that a child ought to learn, and that which he will have the most need to know.No source