Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Philosopher Writer French 1712 – 1778

French writer and philosopher, author of The Social Contract.

381 quotes

"Hope is the pillar of the world."
Hope
"The soul is healed by being with children."
Family
"Suffering teaches the deepest truths."
Wisdom
"Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains."
Freedom
"The general will is always right and tends invariably toward public utility."
Justice
"I prefer liberty with danger to peace with slavery."
Courage
"Patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet."
Patience
"The world of reality has its limits; the world of imagination is boundless."
Imagination
"We are born, so to speak, twice over; born into existence, and born into life."
Life
"Education is the most effective means of changing human nature."
Education
"Natural compassion and commiseration are the only principles of human action."
Kindness
"The state of nature is not the state of war, but the state of peace."
Peace
"Beauty is not a quality in things themselves: it exists merely in the mind."
Beauty
"True love knows not the meaning of surrender."
Love
"The deepest principles of our being demand freedom."
Freedom
"To live is not merely to breathe; it is to act."
Life
"Music is the passion of my life, but I have pursued it only as an art."
Music
"Man is naturally good but corrupted by society."
Philosophy
"The most painful consciousness is the loss of innocence."
Wisdom
"Honest people are the noblest work of God."
Truth
"Fear is stronger than love."
Fear
"The human heart has no caste."
"History shows that everything deems possible to industry."
Work
"I have resolved to do the right thing, come what may."
Courage
"The purpose of law is to protect freedom, not to restrict it."
Justice
"Gratitude is the memory of the heart."
Gratitude
"Life is difficult, and suffering is inevitable, but so is growth."
Change
"The art of living is the art of dying well."
Wisdom
"Childhood is the kingdom where nobody dies."
Family
"To be happy, we must learn to live as ourselves, not as others wish us to be."
Happiness