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.
JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAUWhat good is it looking for our happiness in the opinion of others if we can find it in ourselves?
More Jean-Jacques Rousseau Quotes
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What good is it looking for our happiness in the opinion of others if we can find it in ourselves?
JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAU -
Nature never deceives us; it is always we who deceive ourselves.
JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAU -
The sociable man, always outside himself, is capable of living only in the opinions of others and, so to speak, derives the sentiment of his own existence solely from their judgment.
JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAU -
To write a good love letter, you ought to begin without knowing what you mean to say, and to finish without knowing what you have written.
JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAU -
Every artists wants to be applauded
JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAU -
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.
JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAU -
There is no evildoer who could not be made good for something.
JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAU -
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?
JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAU -
In any real democracy, magistracy isn’t a benefit—it’s a burdensome responsibility that can’t fairly be imposed on one individual rather than another.
JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAU -
But in some great souls, who consider themselves as citizens of the world, and forcing the imaginary barriers that separate people from people.
JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAU -
If there were a nation of Gods, it would govern itself democratically. A government so perfect is not suited to men.
JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAU -
It is too difficult to think nobly when one thinks only of earning a living.
JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAU -
I may be no better, but at least I am different.
JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAU -
Alas, it is when we are beginning to leave this mortal body that it most offends us!
JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAU -
All my misfortunes come of having thought too well of my fellows.
JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAU -
To renounce liberty is to renounce being a man, to surrender the rights of humanity and even its duties.
JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAU -
He who blushes is already guilty.
JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAU -
I prefer liberty with danger than peace with slavery.
JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAU -
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 ROUSSEAU -
Man was born free, and he is everywhere in chains. Those who think themselves the masters of others are indeed greater slaves than they.
JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAU -
Happiness requires three things, a good bank account, a good cook, and good digestion.
JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAU -
I would rather be a man of paradoxes than a man of prejudices.
JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAU -
A taste for ostentation is rarely associated in the same souls with a taste for honesty.
JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAU -
My birth was my first misfortune.
JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAU -
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.
JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAU -
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.
JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAU