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 ROUSSEAUIf 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?
More Jean-Jacques Rousseau Quotes
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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 prefer liberty with danger than peace with slavery.
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We cannot teach children the danger of lying to men without feeling as men, the greater danger of lying to children.
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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.
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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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However great a man’s natural talent may be, the act of writing cannot be learned all at once.
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People who know little are usually great talkers, while men who know much say little.
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Oh, man! Live your own life and no longer be wretched!
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I may be no better, but at least I am different.
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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.
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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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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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Or, rather, let us be more simple and less vain.
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Trust your heart rather than your head.
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There is peace in dungeons, but is that enough to make dungeons desirable?
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Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains.
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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.
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My birth was my first misfortune.
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The first man, who, after enclosing a piece of ground, took it into his head to say, This is mine, and found people simple enough to believe him, was the true founder of civil society.
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What wisdom can you find greater than kindness.
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The world of reality has its limits; the world of imagination is boundless.
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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.
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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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Everything is good as it comes from the hands of the Maker of the world, but degenerates once it gets into the hands of man
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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.
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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.
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