"With children use force; with men reason; such is the natural order of things. The wise man requires no law."
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Quote collection
Jean-Jacques Rousseau quotes (page 16 of 20)
388 quotes — follow a thought to its full quote page.
"Let the trumpet of the day of judgment sound when it will, I shall appear with this book in my hand before the Sovereign Judge, and cry with a loud voice, This is my work, there were my thoughts, and thus was I. I have freely told both the good and the bad, have hid nothing wicked, added nothing good."
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"The problem is to find a form of association which will defend and protect with the whole common force the person and goods of each associate, and in which each, while uniting himself with all, may still obey himself alone, and remain as free as before."
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"At length I recollected the thoughtless saying of a great princess, who, on being informed that the country people had no bread, replied, "Let them eat cake"."
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"Frequent punishments are always a sign of weakness or laziness on the part of a government."
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"Remorse sleeps in the atmosphere of prosperity."
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"As evening approached, I came down from the heights of the island, and I liked then to go and sit on the shingle in some secluded spot by the lake; there the noise of the waves and the movement of the water, taking hold of my senses and driving all other agitation from my soul, would plunge me into delicious reverie in which night often stole upon me unawares."
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"Money is the seed of money."
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"A man says what he knows, a woman says what will please."
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"There is peace in dungeons, but is that enough to make dungeons desirable?"
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"Men will argue more philosophically about the human heart; but women will read the heart of man better than they."
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"It is always a poor way of reading the hearts of others to try to conceal our own. [Fr., C'est toujours un mauvais moyen de lire dans le coeur des autres que d'affecter de cacher le sien.]"
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"I long remained a child, and I am still one in many respects."
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"He who pretends to look upon death without fear, lies"
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"The indifference of children towards meat is one proof that the taste for meat is unnatural; their preference is for vegetable foods...Beware of changing this natural taste and making children flesh-eaters, if not for their health's sake, for the sake of their character; for how can one explain away the fact that great meat-eaters are usually fiercer and more cruel than other men; this has been recognised at all times and in all places."
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"Definitions would be good things if we did not use words to make them."
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"Each member of the community gives himself to it at the instant of its constitution, just as he actually is, himself and all his forces, including all goods in his possession."
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"The thirst after happiness is never extinguished in the heart of man."
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"At sixteen, the adolescent knows about suffering because he himself has suffered, but he barely knows that other beings also suffer."
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"A man speaks of what he knows, a woman of what pleases her: the one requires knowledge, the other taste."
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