Jean-Jacques Rousseau Quotes

"Hầu tìm được những luật lệ của xã hội thích ứng nhất cho các quốc gia, cần phải có một người có sự thông minh siêu tuyệt để có thể thấu hiểu những nhiệt tình của con người mà vẫn không bị ảnh hưởng của thất tình, lục dục; một con người mà hạnh phúc độc lập với con người nhưng lại quan tâm đến hạnh phúc của con người; một con người mà sẵn sàng làm việc ở đời này cho kết quả ở đời sau. Chỉ có thần thánh mới là một "người" như vậy."

Nada hay que influya más sobre mi corazón que un acto de valor hecho a propósito, en favor del débil injustamente oprimido.

Nothing is less in our power than the heart, and far from commanding we are forced to obey it.

Çocuğun kazanmasına izin verilmesi gereken tek alışkanlık, hiçbir alışkanlık edinmemesidir; bir kolda ötekinden daha çok taşınmamalı; bir elini öteki elinden daha çok uzatmaya, onu daha sık kullanmaya, aynı saatlerde yemeye, uyumaya, davranmaya, ne gece ne gündüz tek başına kalamamaya alıştırılmamalı. Vücudunu doğal alışkanlığına bırakarak, onu her zaman kendisine egemen olacak ve her konuda, bir isteği olduğunda, bu isteği gerçekleştirecek duruma getirerek, özgürlüğünün saltanatını yaşamaya ve gücünü kullanmaya şimdiden hazırlayınız.

القمع يريح ضميرنا ويجعلنا نشعر أننا دائماً على حق. يسرّنا أن نفحم أناساً لا يجرؤون على رفع صوتهم !

وليس عليه إلا أن يضع يديه على أذنيه، وأن يساجل نفسه قليلًا ليمنع الطبيعة التي تحركت فيه من أن تتمثل في الشخص الذي يُذْبَحُ، ولا تجد عند الإنسان الوحشي هذا النبوغ العجيب، وتجد الإنسان الوحشي يُسلِم نفسه في كل وقت، وبلا روية، إلى أول شعورٍ إنساني، وترى الرعاع يتجمعون في الفتن والمشاجرات والشوارع، وترى الإنسان الفطين يبتعد عنها، والأوباش ونساء الأسواق هم الذين يفصلون بين المتنازعين ويحولون دون تذابح ذوي الصلاح.

To me money has never seemed to be as precious a thing as it is usually found to be. Further; to me it has never seemed very convenient; it is good for nothing by itself; one must transform it in order to enjoy it; one must buy, haggle, often be a dupe, pay well, in order to be poorly served. I would like something of good quality; with my money I am sure of having one of bad quality. I buy a fresh egg dearly, it is old; a fine fruit, it is green; a girl, she is tainted. I love good wine; but where is it to be found? At a wine merchant's? Whatever I might do he will poison me. Do I absolutely want to be well served? How many cares, what bother! to have friends, correspondents, to give commissions, to write, to go, to come, to wait, and often in the end still to be fooled. How much trouble with my money! I fear it more than I love good wine

Les gens qui passent exactement la vie entière à travailler pour vivre n'ont d'autre idée que celle de leur travail ou de leur intérêt, et tout leur esprit semble être au bout de leurs bras.

All my misfortunes come of having thought too well of my fellows.

Quit thy childhood, my friend, and wake up!

I know that [civilized men] do nothing but boast incessantly of the peace and repose they enjoy in their chains.... But when I see [barbarous man] sacrifice pleasures, repose, wealth, power, and life itself for the preservation of this sole good which is so disdained by those who have lost it; when I see animals born free and despising captivity break their heads against the bars of their prison; when I see multitudes of entirely naked savages scorn European voluptuousness and endure hunger, fire, the sword, and death to preserve only their independence, I feel it does not behoove slaves to reason about freedom.

¡Qué manía en un ser tan efímero como el hombre ha de tener siempre fija la vista en un porvenir lejano que rara vez llega, y descuidar su presente, que es lo cierto!

L’harmonie, me disait-il, n’est qu’un accessoire éloigné dans la musique imitative; il n’y a dans l’harmonie proprement dite aucun principe d’imitation. Elle assure, il est vrai, les intonations; elle porte témoignage de leur justesse; et, rendant les modulations plus sensibles, elle ajoute de l’énergie à l’expresson, et de la grâce au chant. Mais c’est de la seule mélodie que sort cette puissance invincible des accents passionés; c’est d’elle que dérive tout le pouvoir de la musique sur l’âme. Formez les plus savantes successions d’accords sans mélange de mélodie, vous serez ennuyés au bout d’un quart d’heure. De beaux chants sans aucune harmonie sont longtemps à l’épreuve de l’ennui. Que l’accent du sentiment anime les chants les plus simples, ils seront intéressants. Au contraire, une mélodie qui ne parle point chante toujours mal, et la seule harmonie n’a jamais rien su dire au coeur.

The earth left to its own natural fertility and covered with immense woods, that no hatchet ever disfigured, offers at every step food and shelter to every species of animals. Men, dispersed among them, observe and imitate their industry, and thus rise to the instinct of beasts; with this advantage, that, whereas every species of beasts is confined to one peculiar instinct, man, who perhaps has not any that particularly belongs to him, appropriates to himself those of all other animals, and lives equally upon most of the different aliments, which they only divide among themselves; a circumstance which qualifies him to find his subsistence, with more ease than any of them.

Mis sentimientos se acomodaron con una rapidez inconcebible al tono de mis ideas. El entusiasmo por la verdad, la libertad y la virtud ahogó todas mis pequeñas pasiones; y lo mas sorprendente es que esta efervescencia subsistió en mi corazón durante más de cuatro o cinco años, llegando a tan alto grado como jamás haya existido en otro corazón humano. Escribí