Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Jean-Jacques Rousseauwas a Francophone Genevan philosopher, writer, and composer of the 18th century. His political philosophy influenced the Enlightenment in France and across Europe, as well as aspects of the French Revolution and the overall development of modern political and educational thought...
NationalityFrench
ProfessionPhilosopher
Date of Birth28 June 1712
CityGeneva, Switzerland
CountryFrance
women reading book
The world is the book of women. Whatever knowledge they may possess is more commonly acquired by observation than by reading.
rocks years giving
I love idleness. I love to busy myself about trifles, to begin a hundred things and not finish one of them, to come and go as my fancy bids me, to change my plan every moment, to follow a fly in all its circlings, to try and uproot a rock to see what is underneath, eagerly to begin a ten-years' task to give it up after ten minutes: in short, to fritter away the whole day inconsequentially and incoherently, and to follow nothing but the whim of the moment.
coward cowardice braggarts
The greatest braggarts are usually the biggest cowards.
freedom political liberty
I prefer liberty with danger than peace with slavery.
civilization race evil
Civilization is a hopeless race to discover remedies for the evils it produces.
inspirational delight
My liveliest delight was in having conquered myself.
passion voice body
The passions are the voice of the body.
inspirational wisdom kindness
What wisdom can you find that is greater than kindness?
majority-rule political minorities
It is unnatural for a majority to rule, for a majority can seldom be organized and united for specific action, and a minority can.
innocence ashamed
Innocence is ashamed of nothing.
misfortunes
Our greatest misfortunes come to us from ourselves.
world madness madmen
To be sane in a world of madman is in itself madness.
inspirational education men
Education is either from nature, from man or from things. The developing of our faculties and organs is the education of nature; that of man is the application we learn to make of this very developing; and that of things is the experience we acquire in regard to the different objects by which we are affected. All that we have not at our birth, and that we stand in need of at the years of maturity, is the gift of education.
freedom people liberty
Free people, remember this maxim: we may acquire liberty, but it is never recovered if it is once lost.