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“Falsehood has an infinity of combinations, but truth has only one mode of being.”

Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778) Genevan philosopher

“It is easier to conquer than to administer. With enough leverage, a finger could overturn the world; but to support the world, one must have the shoulders of Hercules.”

Jean Jacques Rousseau book The Social Contract

“A born king is a very rare being.”

Jean Jacques Rousseau book The Social Contract

“Once you teach people to say what they do not understand, it is easy enough to get them to say anything you like.”

Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778) Genevan philosopher

“Absolute silence leads to sadness. It is the image of death.”

Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778) Genevan philosopher

“It is as if my heart and my brain did not belong to the same person. Feelings come quicker than lightning and fill my soul, but they bring me no illumination; they burn me and dazzle me.”

Jean Jacques Rousseau book Confessions

“Love, known to the person by whom it is inspired, becomes more bearable.”

Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778) Genevan philosopher

“I have never thought, for my part, that man's freedom consists in his being able to do whatever he wills, but that he should not, by any human power, be forced to do what is against his will.”

Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778) Genevan philosopher

“Every man having been born free and master of himself, no one else may under any pretext whatever subject him without his consent. To assert that the son of a slave is born a slave is to assert that he is not born a man.”

Jean Jacques Rousseau book The Social Contract

“Every person has a right to risk their own life for the preservation of it.”

Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778) Genevan philosopher

“There is no evildoer who could not be made good for something.”

Jean Jacques Rousseau book The Social Contract

“The only moral lesson which is suited for a child--the most important lesson for every time of life--is this: 'Never hurt anybody.”

Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778) Genevan philosopher

“She was dull, unattractive, couldn't tell the time, count money or tie her own shoe laces… But I loved her”

Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778) Genevan philosopher

“We must powder our wigs; that is why so many poor people have no bread.”

Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778) Genevan philosopher

“There is nothing better than the encouragement of a good friend.”

Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778) Genevan philosopher

“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.”

Jean Jacques Rousseau book The Social Contract

“There are times when I am so unlike myself that I might be taken for someone else of an entirely opposite character.”

Jean Jacques Rousseau book Confessions

“The truth brings no man a fortune.”

Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778) Genevan philosopher

“Trust your heart rather than your head.”

Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778) Genevan philosopher