Jean Jacques Rousseau

France
28 Jun 1712 // 2 Jul 1778
Philosopher / Writer

Quotes

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It is always a poor way of reading the hearts of others to try to conceal our own
Remorse goes to sleep during a prosperous period and wakes up in adversity
There is a period of life where we go back as we advance
Accent is the soul of a language; it gives the feeling and truth to it
Childhood is the sleep of reason
Everything is good as it leaves the hands of the author of things, degenerates in the hands of man
We pity in others only those evils which we have ourselves experienced
We do not know either unalloyed happiness or unmitigated misfortune. Everything in this world is a tangled yarn; we taste nothing in its purity; we do not remain two moments in the same state. Our affections as well as bodies, are in a perpetual flux
To live is not merely to breathe: it is to act; it is to make use of our organs, senses, senses, faculties, of all of our parts of ourselves which give us the feeling of existence
To endure is the first thing a child ought to learn, and that which he will have most need to know
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On Anger: "For every minute you remain angry, you give up sixty seconds of peace of mind."
Essays
On Destiny: "Our destiny exercises its influence over us even when, as yet, we have not learned its nature: it is our future that lays down the law of our today."
Human, All Too Human
On Friendship: "A crowd is not company; and faces are but a gallery of pictures; and talk but a tinkling cymbal, where there is no love."
Essays