“Ordinary readers, forgive my paradoxes: one must make them when one reflects; and whatever you may say, I prefer being a man with paradoxes than a man with prejudices.” Jean-Jacques Rousseau ForgiveHate
“The body politic, as well as the human body, begins to die as soon as it is born, and carries itself the causes of its destruction.” Jean-Jacques Rousseau
“Virtue is a state of war, and to live in it we have always to combat with ourselves.” Jean-Jacques Rousseau War
“No true believer could be intolerant or a persecutor. If I were a magistrate and the law carried the death penalty against atheists, I would begin by sending to the stake whoever denounced another.” Jean-Jacques Rousseau DeathLawLie
“When something an affliction happens to you, you either let it defeat you, or you defeat it.” Jean-Jacques Rousseau Defeat
“Heroes are not known by the loftiness of their carriage; the greatest braggarts are generally the merest cowards.” Jean-Jacques Rousseau CowardsGreatestWar
“Most nations, as well as people are impossible only in their youth; they become incorrigible as they grow older.” Jean-Jacques Rousseau Old
“However great a man's natural talent may be, the act of writing cannot be learned all at once.” Jean-Jacques Rousseau Learn
“Remorse sleeps during prosperity but awakes bitter consciousness during adversity.” Jean-Jacques Rousseau
“I undertake the same project as Montaigne, but with an aim contrary to his own: for he wrote his Essays only for others, and I write my reveries only for myself.” Jean-Jacques Rousseau
“It is unnatural for a majority to rule, for a majority can seldom be organized and united for specific action, and a minority can.” Jean-Jacques Rousseau Action
“Money is the seed of money, and the first guinea is sometimes more difficult to acquire than the second million.” Jean-Jacques Rousseau MoneyTime
“O love, if I regret the age when one savors you, it is not for the hour of pleasure, but for the one that follows it.” Jean-Jacques Rousseau Love
“Our will is always for our own good, but we do not always see what that is.” Jean-Jacques Rousseau Good
“Reading, solitude, idleness, a soft and sedentary life, intercourse with women and young people, these are perilous paths for a young man, and these lead him constantly into danger.” Jean-Jacques Rousseau LifeReadingYoung
“We should not teach children the sciences; but give them a taste for them.” Jean-Jacques Rousseau Child
“Do I dare set forth here the most important, the most useful rule of all education? It is not to save time, but to squander it.” Jean-Jacques Rousseau EducationImportantTime
“Force does not constitute right... obedience is due only to legitimate powers.” Jean-Jacques Rousseau Power
“I have resolved on an enterprise that has no precedent and will have no imitator. I want to set before my fellow human beings a man in every way true to nature; and that man will be myself.” Jean-Jacques Rousseau Nature
