Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Social contract theory

Early Modern influential 124 sayings

Sayings by Jean-Jacques Rousseau

I detest the great, their condition, their maxims, their vices, and I should detest them still more if I were one of them.

1782 (posthumous publication) — The Confessions, Book XII
Shocking Unverifiable

To suffer is the lot of man, but to suffer without hope is the lot of the damned.

c. 1760s — Attributed, reflects his often melancholic outlook.
Shocking Unverifiable

My enemies have done me more good than my friends.

c. 1770s — Attributed, often cited as a reflection on his many controversies.
Shocking Unverifiable

There is no true happiness without virtue.

1762 — The Social Contract, Book II, Chapter XII
Shocking Unverifiable