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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.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

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.
JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAU

Desire Money Philosophy Rich Seek Time
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 Identify Myself Nature
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
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
People who know little are usually great talkers, while men who know much say little.
JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAU

Greatness People Philosophy Talk
To renounce freedom is to renounce one’s humanity, one’s rights as a man and equally one’s duties.
JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAU

Equality Freedom Humanity Man Oneself Right
To live is not merely to breathe; it is to act; it is to make use of our organs, senses, faculties – of all those parts of ourselves which give us the feeling of existence.
JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAU

Act Breathe Existence Feeling Live Ourselves Philosophy Yourself
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
We cannot teach children the danger of lying to men without feeling as men, the greater danger of lying to children.
JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAU

Children Danger Lying Man Teaching
If there were a nation of Gods, it would govern itself democratically. A government so perfect is not suited to men.
JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAU

Democracy God Government Nation Perfection
Civilization is a hopeless race to discover remedies for the evils it produces.
JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAU

Civilization Discover Evil Hope Race
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 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
I prefer liberty with danger than peace with slavery.
JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAU

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

Nature Ourselves Perspective