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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.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Why should we build our happiness on the opinons of others, when we can find it in our own hearts?
JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAU

Happiness Heart Opinion Philosophy
What good is it looking for our happiness in the opinion of others if we can find it in ourselves?
JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAU

Goodness Happiness Opinion Ourselves Philosophy Self Love
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

Feeling Happiness Identify Myself Nature
Alas, it is when we are beginning to leave this mortal body that it most offends us!
JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAU

Beginning Body Death Leaving Mortal
What good would it be to possess the whole universe if one were its only survivor?
JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAU

Goodness Oneself Survive
The 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.
JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAU

Believe Enough Greatness Himself People Pieces Reality Simplicity
My birth was my first misfortune.
JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAU

Born Misfortune Myself
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

Age Care Himself Judgement Law Man Philosophy Reason
Those that are most slow in making a promise are the most faithful in the performance of it.
JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAU

Character Faith Loyalty Promise Word
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.
JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAU

Destroy Equality Intelligence Law Man Nature Strength
I prefer liberty with danger than peace with slavery.
JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAU

Danger Liberty Myself Peace Slave
Nature never deceives us; it is always we who deceive ourselves.
JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAU

Nature Ourselves Perspective
I hate books; they only teach us to talk about things we know nothing about.
JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAU

Hate Myself Talk Teaching
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 ROUSSEAU

Freedom Mistake People Slave
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

Imagination Love Myself Time
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.
JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAU

Civilization Deep Home Imagination Man Nature Philosophy