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.
JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAUIf force compels obedience, there is no need to invoke a duty to obey, and if force ceases to compel obedience, there is no longer any obligation.
More Jean-Jacques Rousseau Quotes
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The social pact, far from destroying natural equality, substitutes, on the contrary, a moral and lawful equality for whatever physical inequality that nature may have imposed on mankind; so that however unequal in strength and intelligence, men become equal by covenant and by right.
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It is too difficult to think nobly when one thinks only of earning a living.
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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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To renounce liberty is to renounce being a man, to surrender the rights of humanity and even its duties.
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It is pity in which the state of nature takes the place of laws, morals and virtues, with the added advantage that no one there is tempted to disobey its gentle voice.
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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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Man was born free, and he is everywhere in chains. Those who think themselves the masters of others are indeed greater slaves than they.
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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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If we assume man has been corrupted by an artificial civilization, what is the natural state? the state of nature from which he has been removed? imagine, wandering up and down the forest without industry, without speech, and without home.
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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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Civilization is a hopeless race to discover remedies for the evils it produces.
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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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What good would it be to possess the whole universe if one were its only survivor?
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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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Nature made me happy and good, and if I am otherwise, it is society’s fault.
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If there is in this world a well-attested account, it is that of vampires. Nothing is lacking: official reports, affidavits of well-known people, of surgeons, of priests, of magistrates; the judicial proof is most complete. And with all that, who is there who believes in vampires?
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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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There is no evildoer who could not be made good for something.
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From this it follows that, the larger the State, the less the liberty.
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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 feel an indescribable ecstasy and delirium in melting, as it were, into the system of being, in identifying myself with the whole of nature..
JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAU -
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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Truth is an homage that the good man pays to his own dignity.
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There are times when I am so unlike myself that I might be taken for someone else of an entirely opposite character.
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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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I hate books; they only teach us to talk about things we know nothing about.
JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAU