Quotes by Jean-Jacques Rousseau

“I know the feelings of my heart, and I know men. 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. Whether Nature has acted rightly or wrongly in destroying the mould in which she cast me, can only be decided after I have been read.””

“It is too difficult to think nobly when one thinks only of earning a living.””

“To be sane in a world of madman is in itself madness.””

“What wisdom can you find greater than kindness.””

“Why should we build our happiness on the opinons of others, when we can find it in our own hearts?””

“Every person has a right to risk their own life for the preservation of it.””

“Those that are most slow in making a promise are the most faithful in the performance of it. ””

“Or, rather, let us be more simple and less vain.””

“Man was born free, and he is everywhere in chains. Those who think themselves the masters of others are indeed greater slaves than they.””

“Every man having been born free and master of himself, no one else may under any pretext whatever subject him without his consent. To assert that the son of a slave is born a slave is to assert that he is not born a man.””

“All my misfortunes come of having thought too well of my fellows.””

“I have never thought, for my part, that man's freedom consists in his being able to do whatever he wills, but that he should not, by any human power, be forced to do what is against his will.””

“...in respect of riches, no citizen shall ever be wealthy enough to buy another, and none poor enough to be forced to sell himself.””