Jean-Jacques Rousseau Quotes

Whoever is endowed with a power superior to mankind, should also be above the weakness of humanity, without which, that excess of strength would, in effect, only sink him below the most feeble, or what he would actually have been, had he remained their equal.

Nothing on this earth is worth
buying at the price of human blood.

Happy am I, for every time I meditate on governments, I always find new reasons in my inquiries for loving my own country.

Portanto, chamo de República todo Estado regido por leis, seja qual for sua forma de administração: pois então somente o interesse público governa, e a coisa pública é qualquer coisa. Todo governo legítimo é republicano: explicarei adiante o que é governo.

If instead of making a child stick to his books I employ him in a workshop, his hands work for the development of his mind. While he fancies himself a workman he is becoming a philosopher.

Hallando en cada enfermedad síntomas de la mía, creía tenerlas todas y contraje una más cruel de que me conceptuaba libre: el anhelo de curar; y es una enfermedad difícil de evitar cuando se leen libros de medicina.

Two fundamental factors are at the base of this transformation. The first is the destruction of those religious, political, and social beliefs in which all the elements of our civilisation are rooted. The second is the creation of entirely new conditions of existence and thought as the result of modern scientific and industrial discoveries.

"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

The wise man observes the public disorder he cannot prevent; he observes it, and reveals by his sad countenance the grief it causes him; but as for individual disorders, he opposes them or averts his eyes, lest his presence be taken for approval.

The most striking peculiarity presented by a psychological crowd is the following: Whoever be the individuals that compose it, however like or unlike be their mode of life, their occupations, their character, or their intelligence, the fact that they have been transformed into a crowd puts them in possession of a sort of collective mind which makes them feel, think, and act in a manner quite different from that in which each individual of them would feel, think, and act were he in a state of isolation.

The sophism that ruined me is the one made by the majority of men,
who complain about lacking strength when it is already too late to make use of it.
[...]
Virtue costs us only through our own fault, and if we always wanted to be wise, we would rarely need to be virtuous. But inclinations that would be
easy to overcome sweep us away without resistance:
we give way to slight temptations whose danger we scorn

Oh, man! Live your own life and no longer be wretched!

When the people shall have nothing more to eat, they will eat the rich.

Bu, doğal olarak dünyadan yalıtılmış, her şeyin bana güzel tablolar olarak göründüğü, rada yaşayan birkaç kişinin benim sürekli ilgimi çekecek denli çekici olmaksızın içten bir topluluk oluşturdukları ve bütün gün engelsiz, hiçbir güçlüğe uğramadan, istediğim gibi davranabildiğim ya da kendimi tembelliğe bırakabildiğim bir ıssız ve bereketli adada, daha iyi, daha hoş düşlemlere dalınabiliyordu.
...Toplumsal yaşamın doğurduğu bütün dünya tutkularından kurtulan ruhum, bu havanın üstüne yükselmeye koyulur ve yakında katılacağını umduğu ölümsüz ruha, daha önceden karışır. Bilirim ki insanlar, beni bırakmak istemedikleri böyle hoç bir sığınağa bir daha sokmamaya çalışırlar. Ama her gün imgelemimin kanatları üstünde gidip hala oradaymışım gibi zevk almama engel olamazlar. Orada yapacağım en tatlı şey istediğim gibi düşleme dalmaktır. Orada olduğumu düşlemekle aynı şeyi yapmıyor muyum? Daha ileri gidiyorum: Değişmez, soyut bir düşleme, onu canlandıran betimlemeler de katıyorum. Kendimden geçtiğim sıralarda o betimlemelerin anlamını anlayamazken, düşlemlerim derinleştikçe, daha renkli görüyorlar. Dahası, onların içinde, gerçekten bulunduğum zamandan daa çok bulunuyorum.

if you study in order to instruct, and herbalize only to become author or professor, all its attractive charms vanish, and plants, being no longer considered but as instruments of our passions, no more real pleasure can result from the study of them. Our end, then, is not to gain knowledge, but to make others sensible of our acquirements;