The quotations of

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Genevan philosopher, writer, and composer

1712–1778

16 quotes, most often on Liberty, Laws and Love. Part of the Philosophers collection.

To write a good love letter, you ought to begin without knowing what you mean to say and to finish without knowing what you have written.
- Love
- Writing
A country cannot subsist well without liberty, nor liberty without virtue.
Often credited to Daniel Webster
- Liberty
- Virtue
What wisdom can you find that is greater than kindness?
Emile: Or, On Education, book II
- Virtue
- Wisdom
It is in man’s heart that the life of nature’s spectacle exists; to see it, one must feel it.
Emile (1762).
- Nature
It is too difficult to think nobly when one thinks only of earning a living.
II
- Thinking
- Work
Hatred, as well as love, renders its votaries credulous.
V
- Anger
- Love
Whenever the last trumpet shall sound, I will present myself before the sovereign judge with this book in my hand, and loudly proclaim, thus have I acted; these were my thoughts; such was I.
Confessions of Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1765-1770; published 1782), Book I
- Character
- Writing
Man is born free; and everywhere he is in chains.
The Social Contract (1762), Book I, Chapter IIn context
- Freedom
- Liberty
Tranquillity is found also in dungeons; but is that enough to make them desirable places to live in?
The Social Contract (1762), Book I, Chapter IVIn context
- Freedom
- Liberty
To renounce liberty is to renounce being a man, to surrender the rights of humanity and even its duties. For him who renounces everything no indemnity is possible. Such a renunciation is incompatible with man’s nature; to remove all liberty from his will is to remove all morality from his acts.
The Social Contract (1762), Book I, Chapter IVIn context
- Liberty
- Morality
The right of conquest has no foundation other than the right of the strongest.
The Social Contract (1762), Book I, Chapter IVIn context
- Power
- War & Peace
The right of slavery is null and void, not only as being illegitimate, but also because it is absurd and meaningless. The words slave and right contradict each other, and are mutually exclusive.
The Social Contract (1762), Book I, Chapter IVIn context
- Slavery
Good laws lead to the making of better ones; bad ones bring about worse.
The Social Contract (1762), Book III, Chapter XVIn context
- Laws
As soon as any man says of the affairs of the State What does it matter to me? the State may be given up for lost.
The Social Contract (1762), Book III, Chapter XVIn context
Every law the people has not ratified in person is null and void⁠—is, in fact, not a law.
The Social Contract (1762), Book III, Chapter XVIn context
- Democracy
- Laws

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