The empire of woman is an empire of softness, of address, of complacency. Her commands are caresses, her menaces are tears. Jean-Jacques Rousseau More Quotes by Jean-Jacques Rousseau More Quotes From Jean-Jacques Rousseau What good would it be to possess the whole universe if one were its only survivor? Jean-Jacques Rousseau survivorwholeifs The English people think they are free; they are greatly deceived; they are free only during the election of members of Parliament. Jean-Jacques Rousseau electionfreedomthinking I feel an indescribable ecstasy and delirium in melting, as it were, into the system of being, in identifying myself with the whole of nature. Jean-Jacques Rousseau deliriumecstasymelting Falsehood has an infinity of combinations, but truth has only one mode of being. Jean-Jacques Rousseau philosophicalinfinitytruth There are times when I am so unlike myself that I might be taken for someone else of an entirely opposite character. Jean-Jacques Rousseau takenoppositescharacter I believed that I was approaching the end of my days without having tasted to the full any of the pleasures for which my heart thirsted...without having ever tasted that passion which, through lack of an object, was always suppressed. ...The impossibility of attaining the real persons precipitated me into the land of chimeras; and seeing nothing that existed worthy of my exalted feelings, I fostered them in an ideal world which my creative imagination soon peopled with beings after my own heart. Jean-Jacques Rousseau passionrealheart Nothing is less in our power than the heart, and far from commanding we are forced to obey it. Jean-Jacques Rousseau hateheartlove Or, rather, let us be more simple and less vain. Jean-Jacques Rousseau vanityegosimple Although modesty is natural to man, it is not natural to children. Modesty only begins with the knowledge of evil. Jean-Jacques Rousseau menphilosophychildren Presence of mind, penetration, fine observation, are the sciences of women; ability to avail themselves of these is their talent. Jean-Jacques Rousseau presence-of-mindtalentopportunity The English are predisposed to pride, the French to vanity. Jean-Jacques Rousseau nationalismvanitypride The mind grows narrow in proportion as the soul grows corrupt. Jean-Jacques Rousseau proportionsoulmind I had been brought up in a church which decides everything and permits no doubts, so that having rejected one article of faith I was forced to reject the rest. Jean-Jacques Rousseau revolutionchurchdoubt We do not know either unalloyed happiness or unmitigated misfortune. Everything in this world is a tangled yarn; we taste nothing in its purity; we do not remain two moments in the same state. Our affections as well as bodies, are in a perpetual flux. Jean-Jacques Rousseau yarnchangetwo God made me and broke the mold. Jean-Jacques Rousseau brokemoldmade I hate books; they only teach people to talk about what they don't understand. Jean-Jacques Rousseau hatesuccessbook He thinks like a philosopher, but governs like a king. Jean-Jacques Rousseau kingsphilosophythinking 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 refusebodymean My bad head cannot adjust itself to the way things are.... If I want to depict spring, it has to be in wintertime; if I want to describe a beautiful landscape, I must be enclosed within walls; and I have said a hundred times that if I were put in the Bastille, there I would paint a picture of liberty. Jean-Jacques Rousseau walltruthbeautiful 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 constitutioncommunitygiving
