The real world has its limits; the imaginary world is infinite. Unable to enlarge the one, let us restrict the other, for it is from the difference between the two alone that are born all the pains which make us truly unhappy.
JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAUThe 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.
More Jean-Jacques Rousseau Quotes
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It is too difficult to think nobly when one thinks only of earning a living.
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In truth, laws are always useful to those with possessions and harmful to those who have nothing; from which it follows that the social state is advantageous to men only when all possess something and none has too much.
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From this it follows that, the larger the State, the less the liberty.
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All my misfortunes come of having thought too well of my fellows.
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My birth was my first misfortune.
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If there were a nation of Gods, it would govern itself democratically. A government so perfect is not suited to men.
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Alas, it is when we are beginning to leave this mortal body that it most offends us!
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To renounce liberty is to renounce being a man, to surrender the rights of humanity and even its duties.
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The world of reality has its limits; the world of imagination is boundless.
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The people of England regards itself as free; but it is grossly mistaken; it is free only during the election of members of parliament. As soon as they are elected, slavery overtakes it, and it is nothing.
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Those that are most slow in making a promise are the most faithful in the performance of it.
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In respect of riches, no citizen shall ever be wealthy enough to buy another, and none poor enough to be forced to sell himself.
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Being wealthy isn’t just a question of having lots of money. It’s a question of what we want. Wealth isn’t an absolute, it’s relative to desire. Every time we seek something that we can’t afford, we can be counted as poor, how much money we may actually have.
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Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains.
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My love for imaginary objects and my facility in lending myself to them ended by disillusioning me with everything around me, and determined that love of solitude which I have retained ever since that time.
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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.
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Nature made me happy and good, and if I am otherwise, it is society’s fault.
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We cannot teach children the danger of lying to men without feeling as men, the greater danger of lying to children.
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I feel an indescribable ecstasy and delirium in melting, as it were, into the system of being, in identifying myself with the whole of nature.
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Civilization is a hopeless race to discover remedies for the evils it produces.
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Why should we build our happiness on the opinons of others, when we can find it in our own hearts?
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Quit thy childhood, my friend, and wake up!
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I perceive God everywhere in His works. I sense Him in me; I see Him all around me.
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Man’s first law is to watch over his own preservation; his first care he owes to himself; and as soon as he reaches the age of reason, he becomes the only judge of the best means to preserve himself; he becomes his own master.
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I am a hundred times happier in my solitude than I could be if I lived among them.
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It is a great evil for a Chief of a nation to be born the enemy of the freedom whose defender he should be.
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