States Quotes by Jean-Jacques Rousseau

14 States quotes by Jean-Jacques Rousseau

All States quotes Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s page

Jean‑Jacques Rousseau’s fourteen brief entries examine states through the lens of the social contract. His philosophical style challenges readers to consider collective will and individual freedom.

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A citizen should render to the state all the services he can as soon as the sovereign demands them.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

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The bigger a state becomes the more liberty diminishes.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

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In a well governed state, there are few punishments, not because there are many pardons, but because criminals are rare; it is…

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

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As soon as any man says of the affairs of the State "What does it matter to me?" the State may be…

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

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He who eats in idleness that which he himself has not earned, steals it; and a capitalist whom the state pays for…

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

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In truth, laws are always useful to those with possessions and harmful to those who have nothing; from which it follows that…

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

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People in their natural state are basically good. But this natural innocence,however, is corrupted by the evils of society.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

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If all were perfect Christians, individuals would do their duty; the people would be obedient to the laws, the magistrates incorrupt, and…

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

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We do not know either unalloyed happiness or unmitigated misfortune. Everything in this world is a tangled yarn; we taste nothing in…

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

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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

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War is then not a relationship between one man and another, but a relationship between one State and another, in which individuals…

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

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War then, is a relation - not between man and man but between state and state and individuals are enemies only accidentally…

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

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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

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Let it not, therefore, be said that the Sovereign is not subject to the laws of his State; since the contrary is…

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

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More by Jean-Jacques Rousseau

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

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Take the course opposite to custom and you will almost always do well.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

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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

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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

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...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

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Take from the philosopher the pleasure of being heard and his desire for knowledge ceases.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

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Men, in general, are not this or that, they are what they are made to be.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

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

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

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“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

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“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

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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

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“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

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The social compact sets up among the citizens as equality of such kind, that they all bind themselves to observe the same conditions and…

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

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I do not know is a phrase which becomes us.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

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“How could I become wicked, when I had nothing but examples of gentleness before my eyes, and none around me but the best people…

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

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