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Jean-Jacques Rousseau Quotes

Jean-Jacques Rousseau quotes about men

French Philosopher, Writer June 28, 1712 – July 2, 1778

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Quotes

To discover the rules of society that are best suited to nations, there would need to exist a superior intelligence, who could understand the passions of men without feeling any of them, who had no affinity with our nature but knew it to the full, whose happiness was independent of ours, but who would nevertheless make our happiness his concern, who would be content to wait in the fullness of time for a distant glory, and to labour in one age to enjoy the fruits in another. Gods would be... Jean-Jacques Rousseau
The more I study the works of men in their institutions, the more clearly I see that, in their efforts after independence, they become slaves, and that their very freedom is wasted in vain attempts to assure its continuance. That they may not be carried away by the flood of things, they form all sorts of attachments; then as soon as they wish to move forward they are surprised to find that everything drags them back. It seems to me that to set oneself free we need do nothing, we need only... Jean-Jacques Rousseau
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. Jean-Jacques Rousseau
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 the earth belong to all and the earth to no one! Jean-Jacques Rousseau
It is hard to prevent oneself from believing what one so keenly desires, and who can doubt that the interest we have in admitting or denying the reality of the Judgement to come determines the faith of most men in accordance with their hopes and fears. Jean-Jacques Rousseau
A feeble body makes a feeble mind. I do not know what doctors cure us of, but I know this: they infect us with very deadly diseases, cowardice, timidity, credulity, the fear of death. What matter if they make the dead walk, we have no need of corpses; they fail to give us men, and it is men we need. Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Jean-Jacques Rousseau quote: "No man has any natural authority over his fellow men."
No man has any natural authority over his fellow men. Jean-Jacques Rousseau
If one divided all of human science into two parts - the one common to all men, the other particular to the learned - the latter would be quite small in comparison with the former. But we are hardly aware of what is generally attained, because it is attained without thought and even before the age of reason; because, moreover, learning is noticed only by its differences, and as in algebraic equations, common quantities count for nothing. Jean-Jacques Rousseau
For if men needed speech in order to learn to think, they had a still greater need for knowing how to think in order to discover the art of speaking" - Rousseau Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Jean-Jacques Rousseau quote: "If there were a nation of Gods, it would govern itself..."
If there were a nation of Gods, it would govern itself democratically. A government so perfect is not suited to men. Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Jean-Jacques Rousseau quote: "People who know little are usually great talkers, while men..."
People who know little are usually great talkers, while men who know much say little. Jean-Jacques Rousseau
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. Jean-Jacques Rousseau

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