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“He thinks like a philosopher, but governs like a king.”

Jean Jacques Rousseau

Of Frederick the Great
Source: Confessions of Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1765-1770; published 1782), Books VIII-XII, XII

“An honest man nearly always thinks justly.”

Jean Jacques Rousseau

As quoted in A Dictionary of Thoughts: Being a Cyclopedia of Laconic Quotations from the Best Authors of the World, Both Ancient and Modern (1908) by Tryon Edwards, p. 277.

“Let's not be dazzled by the sententious glitter with which error and lying often cover themselves. Society is not created by the crowd, and bodies come together in vain when hearts reject each other. The truly sociable man is more difficult in his relationships than others; those which consist only in false appearances cannot suit him. He prefers to live far from wicked men without thinking about them, than to see them and hate them. He prefers to flee his enemy rather than seek him out to harm him. A person who knows no other society than that of the heart will not seek his society in your circles. That is How J. J. must have thought and behaved before the conspiracy of which he is the object.”

Jean Jacques Rousseau

Second Dialogue; translated by Judith R. Bush, Christopher Kelly, Roger D. Masters
Dialogues: Rousseau Judge of Jean-Jacques (published 1782)

“As a general rule—never substitute the symbol for the thing signified, unless it is impossible to show the thing itself; for the child's attention is so taken up with the symbol that he will forget what it signifies.”

Jean Jacques Rousseau book Emile, or On Education

Emile, or On Education (1762), Book III

“Let's go dance under the elms:
Step lively, young lassies.
Let's go dance under the elms:
Gallants, take up your pipes.”

Jean Jacques Rousseau Le devin du village

Le devin du village (1752)

“If we assume man has been corrupted by an artificial civilization, what is the natural state? the state of nature from which he has been removed? imagine, wandering up and down the forest without industry, without speech, and without home.”

Jean Jacques Rousseau

“If there were a nation of Gods, it would govern itself democratically. A government so perfect is not suited to men.”

Jean Jacques Rousseau book The Social Contract

Source: The Social Contract

“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

“In a well governed state, there are few punishments, not because there are many pardons, but because criminals are rare; it is when a state is in decay that the multitude of crimes is a guarantee of impunity.”

Jean Jacques Rousseau book The Social Contract

Source: The Social Contract

“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

Source: The Social Contract

“A born king is a very rare being.”

Jean Jacques Rousseau book The Social Contract

Source: 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

Source: Emile or On Education

“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

Source: Confessions

“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

Source: Reveries of the Solitary Walker

“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

Source: The Social Contract