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 ROUSSEAUThe 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.
More Jean-Jacques Rousseau Quotes
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There is no evildoer who could not be made good for something.
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People who know little are usually great talkers, while men who know much say little.
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He who pretends to look on death without fear lies. All men are afraid of dying, this is the great law of sentient beings, without which the entire human species would soon be destroyed.
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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.
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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.
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All my misfortunes come of having thought too well of my fellows.
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I hate books; they only teach us to talk about things we know nothing about.
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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.
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To do is to be.
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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.
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In respect of riches, no citizen shall ever be wealthy enough to buy another, and none poor enough to be forced to sell himself.
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To renounce freedom is to renounce one’s humanity, one’s rights as a man and equally one’s duties.
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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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I would rather be a man of paradoxes than a man of prejudices.
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The world of reality has its limits; the world of imagination is boundless.
JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAU