Jean-Jacques Rousseau Quotes

Ich hätte die Menschen auch geliebt, wenn sie es nicht gewollt hätten; sie konnten sich meiner Zuneigung nur dadurch entziehen, dass sie aufhörten, Mensch zu sein.

"The institutions of political society "bound new fetters on the poor and gave new powers to the rich; irretrievably destroyed natural liberty, fixed eternally the law of property and inequality, converted clever usurpation into unalterable right, and, for the advantage of a few ambitious individuals, subjected all mankind to perpetual labor, slavery and wretchedness

Our passions are the chief means of self-preservation; to try to destroy them is therefore as absurd as it is useless; this would be to overcome nature, to reshape God's handiwork. Extend self-love to others and it is transformed into virtue, a virtue which has its root in the heart of every one of us.

The origin of our passions, the root and spring of all the rest, the only one which is born with man, which never leaves him as long as he lives, is self-love; this passion is primitive, instinctive, it precedes all the rest, which are in a sense only modifications of it.

A frail body weakens the soul. This is the origin of the empire of medicine, an art more pernicious to men than all the ills it claims to cure. As for me, I do not know of what illness the doctors cure us; but I do know that they give us quite fatal ones: cowardice, pusillanimity, credulousness, terror of death. If they cure the body, they kill courage. What difference does it make to us that they make cadavers walk? It is men we need, and none is seen leaving their hands

Seit meiner Kindheit in den Trubel der Welt geworfen, habe ich durch Erfahrung früh gelernt, dass ich nicht dafür geschaffen war, in ihr zu leben, und dass ich nie zu dem Zustand gelangen würde, wonach mein Herz sich sehnte.

Oh ihr Sterblichen, ihr seid nicht verlassen, die Natur lebt noch!

Wir existieren nicht mehr, wo wir sind; wir existieren nur, wo wir nicht sind. Ist es dann der Mühe wert, dass wir eine solch große Furcht vor dem Tod haben, wenn die Bedingung, in welcher und durch welche wir leben, dieselbe bleibt?

Under bad governments, equality is only apparent and illusory: it serves to only keep the pauper in his poverty and the rich man in the position he has usurped.

Astronomy was born of superstition, eloquence of ambition, hatred, falsehood and flattery; geometry of avarice; physics of an idle curiosity; and even moral philosophy of human pride. Thus the arts and sciences owe their birth to our vices

De souvereiniteit kan niet gerepresenteerd worden; om dezelfde reden waarom die zich niet laat vervreemden; zij bestaat in essentie uit de algemene wil en de wil laat zich niet representeren; ofwel die
blijft wat die al was, of dat is niet het geval, daar zit niets tussen. De afgevaardigden van het volk kunnen
daarom niet zijn representanten zijn, zij zijn slechts zijn zaakwaarnemers; er is niets waarover zij vrijelijk kunnen beslissen’. (.....) ‘het Engelse volk denkt vrij te zijn. Maar het vergist zich daar lelijk in. Vrij is het slechts op verkiezingsdag, daarna is het slaaf, niets. En in de zeldzame momenten dat het de vrijheid heeft, maakt het er een zodanig gebruik van dat het verdient die vrijheid te verliezen’. (Quoted by Frank Ankersmit in his Farewell Oration given on April 12th, 2010)

Obwohl ich von allen Seiten bedrängt werde, bleibe ich in meinem inneren Gleichgewicht, und weil ich mich an nichts mehr festhalte, bin ich nun mir selber meine eigene Stütze.

To renounce liberty is to renounce being a man, to surrender the rights of humanity and even its duties. For him who renounces everything no indemnity is possible. Such a renunciation is incompatible with man's nature; to remove all liberty from his will is to remove all morality from his acts.

Everything is good as it leaves the hands of the Author of things; everything degenerates in the hands of man. He forces one soil to nourish the products of another, one tree to bear the fruit of another. He mixes and confuses the climates, the elements, the seasons. He mutilates his dog, his horse, his slave. He turns everything upside down; he disfigures everything; he loves deformity, monsters. He wants nothing as nature made it, not even man; for him, man must be trained like a school horse; man must be fashioned in keeping with his fancy like a tree in his garden

Die Macht kann wohl übertragen werden, nicht aber der Wille.