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My birth was my first misfortune.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

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
One does not drink. One gives a kiss to his glass, and the wine returns a caress to you.
JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAU

Drink Kiss Oneself Wine Yourself
I hate books; they only teach us to talk about things we know nothing about.
JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAU

Hate Myself Talk Teaching
The real world has its limits; the imaginary world is infinite. Unable to enlarge the one, let us restrict the other, for it is from the difference between the two alone that are born all the pains which make us truly unhappy.
JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAU

Alone Born Difference Happiness Limitation Oneself Pain Reality World
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 Happiness Identify Myself Nature
A taste for ostentation is rarely associated in the same souls with a taste for honesty.
JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAU

Honesty Soul Taste
Civilization is a hopeless race to discover remedies for the evils it produces.
JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAU

Civilization Discover Evil Hope Race
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
There is no evildoer who could not be made good for something.
JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAU

Change Evil Goodness Worth
People who know little are usually great talkers, while men who know much say little.
JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAU

Greatness People Philosophy Talk
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
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
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 Regard Slave
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 respect of riches, no citizen shall ever be wealthy enough to buy another, and none poor enough to be forced to sell himself.
JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAU

Citizen Enough Force Humanity Respect Rich Worth

My birth was my first misfortune.

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My birth was my first misfortune.

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