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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

To renounce liberty is to renounce being a man, to surrender the rights of humanity and even its duties.
JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAU

Humanity Liberty Man Right
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

Democracy Reality Responsibility
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

Existence Himself Judgement Live Man Talk
Nature made me happy and good, and if I am otherwise, it is society’s fault.
JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAU

Happiness Nature People
MAN is born free; and everywhere he is in chains. One thinks himself the master of others, and still remains a greater slave than they.
JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAU

Born Free Greatness Himself Man Slave Thinking
However great a man’s natural talent may be, the act of writing cannot be learned all at once.
JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAU

Act Greatness Learning Man Talent Writing
I hate books; they only teach us to talk about things we know nothing about.
JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAU

Hate Myself Talk Teaching
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
There is peace in dungeons, but is that enough to make dungeons desirable?
JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAU

Deep Desire Enough Need Peace Prison
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
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

Law Man Material Truth
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
The world of reality has its limits; the world of imagination is boundless.
JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAU

Limitation Reality World
Girls should learn that so much finery is only put on to hide defects, and that the triumph of beauty is to shine by itself.
JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAU

Beautiful Hide Learning Make Up Self Love Shine Woman
MAN is born free; and everywhere he is in chains. One thinks himself the master of others, and still remains a greater slave than they.
JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAU

Freedom Greatness Man Slave Thinking
I perceive God everywhere in His works. I sense Him in me; I see Him all around me.
JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAU

God Himself Myself Religious Spiritual