Frequent punishments are always a sign of weakness or laziness on the part of a government. — Jean-Jacques Rousseau Copy Share Image
“I ask: which of the two, civil or natural life, is more likely to become insufferable to those who live it? We… — Jean-Jacques Rousseau Copy Share Image
In any case, frequent punishments are a sign of weakness or slackness in the government. There is no man so bad that… — Jean-Jacques Rousseau Copy Share Image
What, then, is the government? An intermediary body established between the subjects and the sovereign for their mutual communication, a body charged… — Jean-Jacques Rousseau Copy Share Image
Liberty is not to be found in any form of government; she is in the heart of the free man; he bears… — Jean-Jacques Rousseau Copy Share Image
“If then the people promises simply to obey, by that very act it dissolves itself and loses what makes it a people;… — Jean-Jacques Rousseau Copy Share Image
The political body, therefore, is also a moral being which has a will; and this general will, which tends always to the… — Jean-Jacques Rousseau Copy Share Image
Ought to have a universal compulsory force to move and arrange each part in the manner best suited to the whole. Just… — Jean-Jacques Rousseau Copy Share Image
“Government in its infancy had no regular and permanent form. For want of a sufficient fund of philosophy and experience, men could… — Jean-Jacques Rousseau Copy Share Image
If there were a people consisting of gods, they would be governed democratically. So perfect a government is not suitable to men. — Jean-Jacques Rousseau Copy Share Image
“Political writers argue in regard to the love of liberty with the same philosophy that philosophers do in regard to the state… — Jean-Jacques Rousseau Copy Share Image
The science of government is only a science of combinations, of applications, and of exceptions, according to times, places and circumstances. — Jean-Jacques Rousseau Copy Share Image
If there were a nation of Gods, it would govern itself democratically. A government so perfect is not suited to men. — Jean-Jacques Rousseau Copy Share Image
What, then, is the government? An intermediary body established between the subjects and the sovereign for their mutual communication, and charged with… — Jean-Jacques Rousseau Copy Share Image
“Ancient politicians talked incessantly about morality and virtue; our politicians talk only about business and money. One will tell you that in… — Jean-Jacques Rousseau Copy Share Image
Government originated in the attempt to find a form of association that defends and protects the person and property of each with… — Jean-Jacques Rousseau Copy Share Image
Those people who treat politics and morality separately will never understand either of them. — Jean-Jacques Rousseau Copy Share Image
The body politic, as well as the human body, begins to die as soon as it is born, and carries itself the… — Jean-Jacques Rousseau Copy Share Image
“First, because, in the first case, the right of conquest being in fact no right at all, it could not serve as… — Jean-Jacques Rousseau Copy Share Image
“We all know that we have to put up with a bad government when it is bad; the problem is to find… — Jean-Jacques Rousseau Copy Share Image
“others, without further ceremony ascribing to the strongest an authority over the weakest, have immediately struck out government, without thinking of the… — Jean-Jacques Rousseau Copy Share Image
The members of a body-politic call it "the state" when it is passive, "the sovereign" when it is active, and a "power"… — Jean-Jacques Rousseau Copy Share Image
“But unity divides. Unity excludes. Unity polarizes. The corollary of the nation’s unity is the elimination of any individuals or groups that… — Jean-Jacques Rousseau Copy Share Image
Her dignity consists in being unknown to the world; her glory is in the esteem of her husband; her pleasures in the happiness of… — Jean-Jacques Rousseau Copy Share Image
Take the course opposite to custom and you will almost always do well. — Jean-Jacques Rousseau Copy Share Image
Everything we do not have at our birth and which we need when we are grown is given to us by education. — Jean-Jacques Rousseau Copy Share Image
The first person who, having enclosed a plot of land, took it into his head to say this is mine and found people simple… — Jean-Jacques Rousseau Copy Share Image
...in respect of riches, no citizen shall ever be wealthy enough to buy another, and none poor enough to be forced to sell himself. — Jean-Jacques Rousseau Copy Share Image
Take from the philosopher the pleasure of being heard and his desire for knowledge ceases. — Jean-Jacques Rousseau Copy Share Image
Men, in general, are not this or that, they are what they are made to be. — Jean-Jacques Rousseau Copy Share Image
I would rather be a man of paradoxes than a man of prejudices. — Jean-Jacques Rousseau Copy Share Image
“O Fabricius! What would your great soul have thought, if to your own misfortune you had been called back to life and had seen… — Jean-Jacques Rousseau Copy Share Image
“The sword wears out its sheath, as it is sometimes said. That is my story. My passions have made me live, and my passions… — Jean-Jacques Rousseau Copy Share Image
Whence do I get my rules of conduct? I find them in my heart. Whatever I feel to be good is good. Whatever I… — Jean-Jacques Rousseau Copy Share Image
“If one divided all of human science into two parts - the one common to all men, the other particular to the learned -… — Jean-Jacques Rousseau Copy Share Image
