I am not made like any of those I have seen. I venture to believe that I am not made like any of those who are in existence. If I am not better, at least I am different.
I prefer liberty with danger than peace with slavery.
Whoever blushes is already guilty true innocence is ashamed of nothing.
Everything is good as it comes from the hands of the Maker of the world, but degenerates once it gets into the hands of man
The more I study the works of men in their institutions, the more clearly I see that, in their efforts after independence, they become slaves, and that their very freedom is wasted in vain attempts to...
The first man who, having enclosed a piece of ground, bethought himself of saying 'this is mine', and found people simple enough to believe him, was the real founder of civil society.
The extreme inequality of our ways of life, the excess of idleness among some and the excess of toil among others, the ease of stimulating and gratifying our appetites and our senses, the over-elabora...
Liberty is like rich food and strong wine: the strong natures accustomed to them thrive and grow even stronger on them; but they deplete, inebriate and destroy the weak.
Teach your scholar to observe the phenomena of nature; you will soon rouse his curiosity, but if you would have it grow, do not be in too great a hurry to satisfy this curiosity. Put the problems befo...
Virtue is a state of war, and to live in it we have always to combat with ourselves.
Patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet.
People who know little are usually great talkers, while men who know much say little.
To renounce freedom is to renounce one's humanity, one's rights as a man and equally one's duties.
Nature made me happy and good, and if I am otherwise, it is society's fault.
If force compels obedience, there is no need to invoke a duty to obey, and if force ceases to compel obedience, there is no longer any obligation.
He who is the most slow in making a promise is the most faithful in the performance of it.
Fame is but the breath of the people and that often unwholesome.
[T]he man who meditates is a depraved animal.
Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains.
When I stay in one Place, I can hardly think at all; my body had to be on the move to set my mind going." Jean-Jacques Rousseau.