Sensitivity is the principle of all action. A being, albeit animated, who would feel nothing, would never act, for what would its motive for acting b… - Jean-Jacques Rousseau

"Two years ago, having been walking towards La Nouvelle France, I turned to the left, and willing to extend my walk round Montmartre, crossed the village of Clignancourt. As I walked along, thoughtful, and regardless of the surrounding objects, I felt something clasp my knees, and immediately perceived it was a child of about five or six years old, clinging round them, who at the same time looked up so fondly and familiarly in my face, that I was greatly moved, saying to myself, "thus I should have been treated by my own." I took the child in my arms, and after having kissed it several times, in a kind of transport, continued my way. I felt as I walked on that something was wanting to complete my satisfaction, and this obliged me to return. I reproached myself with having quitted the child so soon, thinking I had discovered in its manner a kind of inspiration, which ought not to have been slighted. Giving into the temptation, I ran towards the child, embraced it again, and gave him money to buy some small Nanterre loaves, a man who sold them happening to be passing by. J began to make him talk; and on asking who's son he was? He pointed to a man that was hooping some barrels. I was just preparing to quit the child, in order to speak to the father, when I was prevented by seeing a man whisper him, who appeared to be one of those spies who are ever at my heels. While this person was speaking, I remarked that the cooper's eyes were fixed attentively on me, with no very friendly aspect: this sight contracted my heart in an instant, and I quitted both father and child, with greater expedition than I had returned to them; but with a sensation less agreeable, and which altered my whole chain of feelings. I have, notwithstanding, frequently felt these sentiments revive, and have often passed Clignancourt, in hopes of seeing this child again, but have never since met either with him or his father, and the only result of this encounter is, a lively remembrance, intermingled w

If I had remained free, obscure, and alone placed in the situation Nature designed me for, I should have done nothing but what was right, for my heart bears not the feeds of any mischievous passion. Had I been invisible and powerful as the Almighty, I should have been benevolent and good like him: it is power and freedom that make good men, weakness and slavery never made any but wicked ones.

Gereksinimlerime dokunan her kaygı beni hüzünlendirir, düşüncelerimi bozar; öyle ki beynimin çalışmasından, ancak benliğimin çıkarlarını gözden uzaklaştırmakla zevk aldım.
Nefsimin çıkarlarını ilgilendiren, kişisel denebilecek hiçbir şey, ruhumu gerçek anlamda kaplayamaz. Ancak kendimi unuttuğum anlardadır ki, tatlı düşlemlerime dalarım. İnsanların arasında erimekte, bütün doğayla bir olmakta, tanımlanamaz bir ruh esirmesi duyarım. İnsanlar benim kardeşlerim oldukları sürece, dünyasal mutluluklar tasarlamaya başlardım; bu düşüceler bir 'bütün' e bağlı bulunduklarına göre, herkesin mutluluğundan ben de mutlu olabilirdim; kardeilerimin kendi mutluluklarını benim düşkünlüğümde aradıklarını gördüğümden beridir ki, gönlüm özel, bana özgü bir mutluluk düşüncesini benimsemiştir. İşte o zaman onlardan nefret etmemek için, kaçmam gerekti ve ortak anamıza sığınarak, onun kolları arasında çocuklarının saldırılarından korunmaya çalıştım. Yalnız bir adam, daha doğrusu onların dediği gibi, toplum yaşamından kaçan ve insan düşmanı bir adam oldum; çünkü en korkunç yalnızlık bile, bana kötülerin, aldatma ve düşmanlıktan başka şeyle beslenmeyen ilgisinden daha yeğ gelir.