Jean-Jacques Rousseau

I would rather be a man of paradoxes than a man of prejudices.

Man is born free; and everywhere he is in chains.

To live is not to breathe but to act. It is to make use of our organs, our senses, our faculties, of all the parts of ourselves which give us the feeling of our existence.

The most useful and honorable science is that of man; and the most properly studied book is the world.

Everything is good as it comes from the hands of the Author of Nature; but everything degenerates in the hands of man.

Conscience is the voice of the soul; the passions are the voice of the body.

Happiness is a good bank account, a good cook, and a good digestion.

I prefer liberty with danger than peace with slavery.

The habit of reading is the only enjoyment in which there is no alloy; it lasts when all other pleasures fade.

Civilization is a hopeless race to discover remedies for the evils it produces.

The world of reality has its limits; the world of imagination is boundless.

It is too difficult to think nobly when one thinks only of earning a living.

To be ourselves is the most difficult thing for us to do.

Plants are shaped by cultivation and men by education.

Never did a man become a prophet in his own country, nor a physician in his own household.

We are born weak, we need strength; we are born helpless, we need aid; we are born foolish, we need reason. All that we lack at birth, all that we need when we come to man's estate, is the gift of education.

It is not good for man to be alone; and I say it is not good for him to be a philosopher.

I have always held that the most beautiful thing in the world, the most beautiful spectacle, is a beautiful woman.

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 said.

All my misfortunes come from my having had too good an opinion of myself.