Inspirational Quotations

Inspirational Quotes by Jean-Jacques Rousseau (French Philosopher)

Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–78) was a Swiss-born French philosopher, author, political theorist, and composer. In many respects an original and contentious thinker, Rousseau’s significant works raised deep-seated questions in the fields of ethics, education, politics, and aesthetics. He ranks as one of the greatest intellectuals of the French Enlightenment and the Romantic generation.

Rousseau’s original thinking was that humans are by nature good, but are soiled by society. He endorsed a humanistic and progressive educational system that would develop the natural interests and potential of the child.

Born in Geneva, Switzerland, Rousseau had no formal education. In 1741, he moved to Paris to make a living from clerical work and music-copying. He became acquainted with Voltaire and Denis Diderot and contributed articles on music and political economy to the Encyclopédie.

In the 1750s, Rousseau came to fame with his Discourse on the Origin and Basis of Inequality Among Men (1754) and other essays that were highly critical of the existing social order. He expressed his belief in the fundamental goodness of human nature, summarized in the concept of the “noble savage,” and the warping effects of civilization.

In 1762, Rousseau published his masterpiece, Du contrat social (A Treatise on the Social Contract, 1764,) which anticipated much of the thinking of the French Revolution. Social Contract argues for a version of the sovereignty of the whole citizen body over itself, expressing its legislative intent through the general will. One of Rousseau’s most notable axioms, “Man is born free; and everywhere he is in chains,” comes from the Social Contract and has been a rallying-cry for rebels and reformers ever since.

In his novel Émile (1762,) Rousseau formulated new educational philosophies giving the child full scope for individual development in natural surroundings, protected from the corrupting influences of civilization.

Rousseau is also noted for his Les Confessions (1782–89; Confessions, 1783–91,) one of the earliest autobiographies. In 1794, his remains were placed alongside those of Voltaire in Paris’s Pantheon.

More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Jean-Jacques Rousseau

The world of reality has its limits; the world of imagination is boundless.—Not being able to enlarge the one, let us contract the other; for it is from their difference that all the evils arise which render us unhappy.
—Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Topics: Reality, Imagination

There is a deportment which suits the figure and talents of each person; it is always lost when we quit it to assume that of another.
—Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Topics: Manners

Endurance and to be able to endure is the first lesson a child should learn because it’s the one they will most need to know.
—Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Topics: Endurance

Absolute silence leads to sadness. It is the image of death.
—Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Topics: Sadness, Silence

Good laws lead to the making of better ones; bad ones bring about worse.
—Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Topics: Law, Laughter

The training of children is a profession, where we must know how to lose time in order to gain it.
—Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Topics: Children

Brains well prepared are the monuments where human knowledge is most surely engraved.
—Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Our greatest evils flow from ourselves.
—Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Topics: Evil

Let the trumpet of the day of judgment sound when it will, I shall appear with this book in my hand before the Sovereign Judge, and cry with a loud voice, This is my work, there were my thoughts, and thus was I. I have freely told both the good and the bad, have hid nothing wicked, added nothing good.
—Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Topics: Honesty

Adversity is a great teacher, but this teacher makes us pay dearly for its instruction; and often the profit we derive, is not worth the price we paid.
—Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Topics: Adversity

I don’t know what is truth,
but I can tell you how to find it!
—Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Topics: Unity

Take from the philosopher the pleasure of being heard and his desire for knowledge ceases.
—Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Topics: Philosophy, Science

General, abstract truth is the most precious of all blessings; without it man is blind, it is the eye of reason.
—Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Topics: Truth

Man is born free, yet he is everywhere in chains.
—Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Topics: Freedom

The English are proud; the French are vain.
—Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Topics: Britain

We pity in others only the those evils which we ourselves have experienced.
—Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Topics: Sympathy

With children use force with men reason; such is the natural order of things. The wise man requires no law.
—Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Topics: Reform, Correction

Virtue is a state of war, and to live in it we have always to combat with ourselves.
—Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Topics: Virtues, Virtue

As long as there are rich people in the world, they will be desirous of distinguishing themselves from the poor.
—Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Topics: Wealth

I have always said and felt that true enjoyment cannot be described.
—Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Topics: Enjoyment

Not all the subtleties of metaphysics can make me doubt a moment of the immortality of the soul, and of a beneficent providence. I feel it, I believe it, I desire it, I hope it, and will defend it to my last breath.
—Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Topics: Immortality

When my reason is afloat, my faith cannot long remain in suspense, and I believe in God as firmly as in any other truth whatever; in short, a thousand motives draw me to the consolatory side, and add the weight of hope to the equilibrium of reason.
—Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Topics: Reason

Whoever blushes confesses guilt, true innocence never feels shame.
—Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Topics: Guilt

There is no folly of which a man who is not a fool cannot get rid except vanity; of this nothing cures a man except experience of its bad consequences, if indeed anything can cure it.
—Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Topics: Vanity

We do not know what is really good or bad fortune.
—Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Topics: Fortune

Kings wish to be absolute, and they are sometimes told that their best way to become so is to make themselves beloved by the people. This maxim is doubtless a very admirable one, and in some respects true; but unhappily it is laughed at in court.
—Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Topics: Kings

The tone of good conversation is brilliant and natural.—It is neither tedious nor frivolous.—It is instructive without pedantry; gay, without tumultuousness; polished, without affectation; gallant, without insipidity; waggish, without equivocation.
—Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Topics: Conversation

A feeble body weakens the mind.
—Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Topics: Health, Body, The Body

Remorse sleeps during prosperity but awakes bitter consciousness during adversity.
—Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Topics: Forgiveness, Repentance

Accent is the soul of language; it gives to it both feeling and truth.
—Jean-Jacques Rousseau

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