Jean-Jacques Rousseau Quotes

208 Sourced Quotes

The money that we possess is the instrument of liberty, that which we lack and strive to obtain is the instrument of slavery.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau
I also realized that the philosophers, far from ridding me of my vain doubts, only multiplied the doubts that tormented me and failed to remove any one of them. So I chose another guide and said, Let me follow the Inner Light; it will not lead me so far astray as others have done, or if it does it will be my own fault, and I shall not go so far wrong if I follow my own illusions as if I trusted to their deceits.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Whoever refuses to obey the general will will be forced to do so by the entire body; this means merely that he will be forced to be free.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau
I have never believed that man's freedom consisted in doing what he wants, but rather in never doing what he does not want to do.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau
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.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau
There is not a single ill-doer who could not be turned to some good.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau
It is not possible for minds degraded by a host of trivial concerns to ever rise to anything great.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau
At Genoa, the word Liberty may be read over the front of the prisons and on the chains of the galley-slaves. This application of the device is good and just. It is indeed only malefactors of all estates who prevent the citizen from being free. In the country in which all such men were in the galleys, the most perfect liberty would be enjoyed.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau