Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) quotes

• A feeble body weakens the mind.
• Absolute silence leads to sadness. It is the image of death.
• All of my misfortunes come from having thought too well of my fellows.
• Base souls have no faith in great individuals.
• Childhood is the sleep of reason.
• Every man has a right to risk his own life for the preservation of it.
• Gratitude is a duty which ought to be paid, but which none have a right to expect.
• I have always said and felt that true enjoyment can not be described.
• It is too difficult to think nobly when one thinks only of earning a living.
• It is unnatural for a majority to rule, for a majority can seldom be organized and united for specific action, and a minority can.
• Man is born free, and everywhere he is in shackles.
  
• Nature never deceives us; it is we who deceive ourselves.
• Our affections as well as our bodies are in a perpetual flux.
• Our greatest evils flow from ourselves.
• Our will is always for our own good, but we do not always see what that is.
• Patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet.
• People who know little are usually great talkers, while men who know much say little.
• Take from the philosopher the pleasure of being heard and his desire for knowledge ceases.
• Take the course opposite to custom and you will almost always do well.
• The English are predisposed to pride, the French to vanity.
• The person who has lived the most is not the one with the most years but the one with the richest experiences.
• The world of reality has its limits; the world of imagination is boundless.
• Those that are most slow in making a promise are the most faithful in the performance of it.
• We are born weak, we need strength; helpless, we need aid; foolish, we need reason. All tht we lack at birth, all that we need when we come to man's estate, is the gift of education.
• We pity in other only those evils which we ourselves have experienced.
• You forget that the fruits belong to all and that the land belongs to no one.