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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 Given Up For Lost.
-Jean-Jacques Rousseau
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As Soon As Any

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 Given Up For Lost.

Understanding the Quote: "as soon as any man says of the affairs of the state..."

This quote by Jean-Jacques Rousseau reflects deeply on the theme of men. It connects to the universal human journey of purpose, motivation, and reflection. Often categorized under Men, Doe, May, the quote offers insight, emotional clarity, and intellectual inspiration to readers worldwide.

Whether you’re a student exploring new ideas, a leader trying to motivate your team, or someone seeking direction in life — this quote provides value. It resonates because it’s more than words — it’s a bridge between experience and wisdom. It shows how Jean-Jacques Rousseau interprets life's core challenges and triumphs.

Lessons From the Quote

This quote teaches resilience and focus. It reminds readers that no matter where they stand in life, reflection and self-awareness lead to growth. Each word has meaning, and when studied, it becomes clear how impactful thoughtful language can be.

About Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Jean-Jacques Rousseau is celebrated for insightful thoughts on men and doe. Their legacy lives on through writings that guide, comfort, and inspire. Discover more on their profile page.

Actionable Takeaways

  • Reflect on how this quote applies to your current life path.
  • Share the message with someone who needs inspiration.
  • Write your thoughts on this quote in a journal or blog post.
  • Use it as a daily affirmation or reminder.

Closing Thoughts

Quotes like this endure because they capture universal truths. They comfort us in solitude and empower us in groups. Carry this quote forward — live by its wisdom, share its message, and keep its essence alive.

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Topic
Men
Doe
May
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Everything Is In Constant Flux On This Earth. Nothing Keeps The Same Unchanging Shape, And Our Affections, Being Attached To Things Outside Us, Necessarily Change And Pass Away As They Do. Always Out Ahead Of Us Or Lagging Behind, They Recall A Past Which Is Gone Or Anticipate A Future Which May Never Come Into Being; There Is Nothing Solid There For The Heart To Attach Itself To. Thus Our Earthly Joys Are Almost Without Exception The Creatures Of A Moment.
Heart
Past
Joy
Physical Evils Destroy Themselves, Or They Destroy Us.
Evil
War Then, Is A Relation - Not Between Man And Man But Between State And State And Individuals Are Enemies Only Accidentally Not As Men, Nor Even As Citizens But As Soldiers Not As Members Of Their Country, But As Its Defenders
Country
War
Men
The Opportunity Of Making Happy Is More Scarce Than We Imagine; The Punishment Of Missing It Is, Never To Meet With It Again; And The Use We Make Of It Leaves Us An Eternal Sentiment Of Satisfaction Or Repentance.
Opportunity
Punishment
Missing
The Political Body, Therefore, Is Also A Moral Being Which Has A Will; And This General Will, Which Tends Always To The Conservation And Well-being Of The Whole And Of Each Part Of It ... Is, For All Members Of The State ... The Rule Of What Is Just Or Unjust.
Political
Body
Unjust
Fame Is But The Breath Of People, And That Often Unwholesome.
Philosophy
Philosophical
People
Whoever Blushes Is Already Guilty; True Innocence Is Ashamed Of Nothing.
Innocence
Guilty
Ashamed
My Bad Head Cannot Adjust Itself To The Way Things Are.... If I Want To Depict Spring, It Has To Be In Wintertime; If I Want To Describe A Beautiful Landscape, I Must Be Enclosed Within Walls; And I Have Said A Hundred Times That If I Were Put In The Bastille, There I Would Paint A Picture Of Liberty.
Beautiful
Wall
Truth
Ah, That Is A Perfume In Which I Delight; When They Roast Coffee Near My House, I Hasten To Open The Door To Take In All The Aroma.
Coffee
Doors
House
The Man Who Gets The Most Out Of Life Is Not The One Who Has Lived It Longest, But The One Who Has Felt Life Most Deeply.
Life
Men
He Man
I Have Suffered Too Much In This World Not To Hope For Another.
World Suffering
Too Much
This World
Liberty Is Not To Be Found In Any Form Of Government; She Is In The Heart Of The Free Man; He Bears Her With Him Everywhere.
Heart
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There Is No Folly Of Which A Man Who Is Not A Fool Cannot Get Rid Except Vanity; Of This Nothing Cures A Man Except Experience Of Its Bad Consequences, If Indeed Anything Can Cure It.
Men
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Fool
It Is A Mania Shared By Philosophers Of All Ages To Deny What Exists And To Explain What Does Not Exist.
Science
Technology
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Plants Are Shaped By Cultivation And Men By Education. .. We Are Born Weak, We Need Strength; We Are Born Totally Unprovided, We Need Aid; We Are Born Stupid, We Need Judgment. Everything We Do Not Have At Our Birth And Which We Need When We Are Grown Is Given Us By Education.
Educational
Stupid
Men
Each Member Of The Community Gives Himself To It At The Instant Of Its Constitution, Just As He Actually Is, Himself And All His Forces, Including All Goods In His Possession.
Giving
Community
Constitution
Provided A Man Is Not Mad, He Can Be Cured Of Every Folly But Vanity; There Is No Cure For This But Experience, If Indeed There Is Any Cure For It At All.
Men
Vanity
Mad
If I Am Part Of A Group Of 100 People, Do 99 People Have The Right To Sentence Me To Death, Just Because They Are Majority?
People
Majority
Groups
Slaves Lose Everything In Their Chains, Even The Desire Of Escaping From Them.
Escaping
Desire
Slavery
Let It Not, Therefore, Be Said That The Sovereign Is Not Subject To The Laws Of His State; Since The Contrary Is A True Proposition Of The Right Of Nations, Which Flattery Has Sometimes Attacked But Good Princes Have Always Defended As The Tutelary Divinity Of Their Dominions. How Much More Legitimate Is It To Say With The Wise Plato, That The Perfect Felicity Of A Kingdom Consists In The Obedience Of Subjects To Their Prince, And Of The Prince To The Laws, And In The Laws Being Just And Constantly Directed To The Public Good!
Wise
Plato
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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.
Needs
Birth
Given
I Perceive God Everywhere In His Works. I Sense Him In Me; I See Him All Around Me.
Faith
Perceive
The Man Who Meditates Is A Depraved Animal.
Animal
Reflection
Men
Do I Dare Set Forth Here The Most Important, The Most Useful Rule Of All Education? It Is Not To Save Time, But To Squander It.
Education
Educational
Important
What Good Would It Be To Possess The Whole Universe If One Were Its Only Survivor?
Survivor
Whole
Ifs
I Don't Know What Is Truth,but I Can Tell You How To Find It!
Unity
Knows
I Can
The World Is Woman's Book. [fr., Le Monde Est Le Livre Des Femmes.]
Book
World
Femme
Force Does Not Constitute Right... Obedience Is Due Only To Legitimate Powers.
Philosophical
Doe
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Education Is Either From Nature, From Man Or From Things. The Developing Of Our Faculties And Organs Is The Education Of Nature; That Of Man Is The Application We Learn To Make Of This Very Developing; And That Of Things Is The Experience We Acquire In Regard To The Different Objects By Which We Are Affected. All That We Have Not At Our Birth, And That We Stand In Need Of At The Years Of Maturity, Is The Gift Of Education.
Inspirational
Education
Maturity
She Was Dull, Unattractive, Couldn't Tell The Time, Count Money Or Tie Her Own Shoe Laces... But I Loved Her
Shoes
Ties
Unattractive
Your First Duty Is To Be Humane. Love Childhood. Look With Friendly Eyes On Its Games, Its Pleasures, Its Amiable Dispositions. Which Of You Does Not Sometimes Look Back Regretfully On The Age When Laughter Was Ever On The Lips And The Heart Free Of Care? Why Steal From The Little Innocents The Enjoyment Of A Time That Passes All Too Quickly?
Laughter
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[when Anything Happens, We Interpret It As Good Or Bad, But...] We Do Not Know What Is Really Good Or Bad Fortune. [only The Future Can Decide. For Example, What Appears To Be Bad Today May In Fact Lead Us To A Greater Good Tomorrow And By The Very Act Of Thinking And Planning In That Positive Way, We Can Help Make That Good Future Come True.]
Thinking
Example
May
Definitions Would Be Good Things If We Did Not Use Words To Make Them.
Would Be
Use
Definitions
Equality Is Deemed By Many A Mere Speculative Chimera, Which Can Never Be Reduced To Practice. But If The Abuse Is Inevitable, Does It Follow That We Ought Not To Try At Least To Mitigate It? It Is Precisely Because The Force Of Things Tends Always To Destroy Equality That The Force Of The Legislature Must Always Tend To Maintain It.
Equality
Practice
Abuse
Equality, Because Without It There Can Be No Liberty.
Liberty
Take The Course Opposite To Custom And You Will Almost Always Do Well.
Philosophical
Opposites
Risk
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.
Men
Doe
May
Abstaining So As Really To Enjoy, Is The Epicurism, The Very Perfection, Of Reason.
Perfection
Abstinence
Reason
Supreme Happiness Consists In Self-content; That We May Gain This Self-content, We Are Placed Upon This Earth And Endowed With Freedom.
Self
Earth
May
It Is Well Known That A Loose And Easy Dress Contributes Much To Give To Both Sexes Those Fine Proportions Of Body That Are Observable In The Grecian Statues, And Which Serve As Models To Our Present Artists.
Sex
Artist
Giving
He Thinks Like A Philosopher, But Governs Like A King.
Kings
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Thinking
Beware Of Listening To This Impostor; You Are Undone If You Once Forget That The Fruits Of The Earth Belong To Us All, And The Earth Itself To Nobody.
Listening
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It Is Unnatural For A Majority To Rule, For A Majority Can Seldom Be Organized And United For Specific Action, And A Minority Can.
Majority Rule
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The Money You Have Gives You Freedom; The Money You Pursue Enslaves You.
Money
Giving
Pursue
To Discover The Rules Of Society That Are Best Suited To Nations, There Would Need To Exist A Superior Intelligence, Who Could Understand The Passions Of Men Without Feeling Any Of Them, Who Had No Affinity With Our Nature But Knew It To The Full, Whose Happiness Was Independent Of Ours, But Who Would Nevertheless Make Our Happiness His Concern, Who Would Be Content To Wait In The Fullness Of Time For A Distant Glory, And To Labour In One Age To Enjoy The Fruits In Another. Gods Would Be Needed To Give Men Laws.
Passion
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I Prefer Liberty With Danger Than Peace With Slavery.
Freedom
Political
Liberty
Nature Never Deceives Us; It Is We Who Deceive Ourselves.
Motivational
Trust
Nature
Do You Not Know...that A Child Badly Taught Is Farther From Being Wise Than One Not Taught At All?
Wise
Children
Taught
Even Knaves May Be Made Good For Something.
Knavery
May
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It Has Always Pleased Me To Read While Eating If I Have No Companion; It Gives Me The Society I Lack. I Devour Alternately A Page And A Mouthful; It Is As Though My Book Were Dining With Me.
Food
Book
Giving
Since Men Cannot Create New Forces, But Merely Combine And Control Those Which Already Exist, The Only Way In Which They Can Preserve Themselves Is By Uniting Their Separate Powers In A Combination Strong Enough To Overcome Any Resistance, Uniting Them So That Their Powers Are Directed By A Single Motive And Act In Concert.
Strong
Men
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Reason Deceives Us; Conscience, Never.
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Reason
Conscience
Innocence Is Ashamed Of Nothing.
Innocence
Ashamed
There Exists One Book, Which, To My Taste, Furnishes The Happiest Treatise Of Natural Education. What Then Is This Marvelous Book? Is It Aristotle? Is It Pliny, Is It Buffon? No-it Is Robinson Crusoe.
Education
Book
Buffon
The Abuse Of Books Kills Science. Believing That We Know What We Have Read, We Believe That We Can Dispense With Learning It.
Believe
Book
Abuse
There Are Two Things To Be Considered With Regard To Any Scheme. In The First Place, Is It Good In Itself? In The Second, Can It Be Easily Put Into Practice?
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Smell Is The Sense Of Memory And Desire.
Memories
Smell
Desire
Taste Is, So To Speak, The Microscope Of The Judgment.
Taste And Judgment
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A Feeble Body Weakens The Mind.
Mind
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All Through Life A Man Has Need Of A Counsellor And Guide.
Teaching
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Childhood Has It's Own Way Of Seeing, Thinking, And Feeling, And Nothing Is More Foolish Than To Try To Substitute Ours For Theirs.
Thinking
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When A Man Dies He Clutches In His Hands Only That Which He Has Given Away During His Lifetime.
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Quit Thy Childhood, My Friend, And Wake Up!
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Childhood
Wake Up
Our Passions Are The Chief Means Of Self-preservation; To Try To Destroy Them Is Therefore As Absurd As It Is Useless; This Would Be To Overcome Nature, To Reshape God's Handiwork. If God Bade Man Annihilate The Passions He Has Given Him, God Would Bid Him Be And Not Be; He Would Contradict Himself. He Has Never Given Such A Foolish Commandment, There Is Nothing Like It Written On The Heart Of Man, And What God Will Have A Man Do, He Does Not Leave To The Words Of Another Man. He Speaks Himself; His Words Are Written In The Secret Heart.
Mean
Passion
Heart
I Hate Books; They Only Teach Us To Talk About Things We Know Nothing About.
Hate
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Philosophical
Finance Is A Slave's Word.
Finance
Slave
Plant And Your Spouse Plants With You; Weed And You Weed Alone.
Funny
Weed
Wedding
That Man Is Truly Free Who Desires What He Is Able To Perform, And Does What He Desires.
Men
Desire
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In Genoa, The Word, Libertas Can Be Read On The Front Of Prisons And On The Fetters Of Galley-slaves. The Application Of This Motto Is Fine And Just.
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Remorse Sleeps In The Atmosphere Of Prosperity.
Sleep
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Free People, Remember This Maxim: We May Acquire Liberty, But It Is Never Recovered If It Is Once Lost.
Freedom
People
Liberty
Everything Is Good As It Comes From The Hands Of The Maker Of The World, But Degenerates Once It Gets Into The Hands Of Man
Men
Hands
World
At Genoa, The Word Liberty May Be Read Over The Front Of The Prisons And On The Chains Of The Galley-slaves. This Application Of The Device Is Good And Just. It Is Indeed Only Malefactors Of All Estates Who Prevent The Citizen From Being Free. In The Country In Which All Such Men Were In The Galleys, The Most Perfect Liberty Would Be Enjoyed.
Country
Men
Perfect
If There Wasn't A God We Would Have To Invent One To Keep People Sane.
God
People
Sane
The Money That We Possess Is The Instrument Of Liberty, That Which We Lack And Strive To Obtain Is The Instrument Of Slavery.
Money
Liberty
Slavery
What Wisdom Can You Find That Is Greater Than Kindness?
Inspirational
Wisdom
Kindness
It Is Hard To Prevent Oneself From Believing What One So Keenly Desires, And Who Can Doubt That The Interest We Have In Admitting Or Denying The Reality Of The Judgement To Come Determines The Faith Of Most Men In Accordance With Their Hopes And Fears.
Believe
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The Writings Of Women Are Always Cold And Pretty Like Themselves. There Is As Much Wit As You May Desire, But Never Any Soul.
Writing
Soul
Desire
To Renounce Liberty Is To Renounce Being A Man, To Surrender The Rights Of Humanity And Even Its Duties. For He Who Renounces Everything No Indemnity Is Possible. Such A Renunciation Is Incompatible With Man's Nature; To Remove All Liberty From His Will Is To Remove All Morality From His Acts.
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Humanity
Ought To Have A Universal Compulsory Force To Move And Arrange Each Part In The Manner Best Suited To The Whole. Just As Nature Gives Each Man An Absolute Power Over All His Members, The Social Compact Gives The Body Politic An Absolute Power Over All Its Members." "we Grant That Each Person Alienates, By The Social Compact, Only That Portion Of His Power, His Goods, And Liberty Whose Use Is Of Consequence To The Community; But We Must Also Grant That Only The Sovereign Is The Judge Of What Is Of Consequence.
Moving
Men
Giving
Socrates Dies With Honor, Surrounded By His Disciples Listening To The Most Tender Words -the Easiest Death That One Could Wish To Die. Jesus Dies In Pain, Dishonor, Mockery, The Object Of Universal Cursing - The Most Horrible Death That One Could Fear. At The Receipt Of The Cup Of Poison, Socrates Blesses Him Who Could Not Give It To Him Without Tears; Jesus, While Suffering The Sharpest Pains, Prays For His Most Bitter Enemies. If Socrates Lived And Died Like A Philosopher, Jesus Lived And Died Like A God.
Jesus
Pain
Wish To Die
At Sixteen, The Adolescent Knows About Suffering Because He Himself Has Suffered, But He Barely Knows That Other Beings Also Suffer.
Depression
Suffering
Sixteen
Patience Patience Quotes Is Bitter, But Its Fruit Is Sweet.
Patience
Sweet
Fruit
I Undertake The Same Project As Montaigne, But With An Aim Contrary To His Own: For He Wrote His Essays Only For Others, And I Write My Reveries Only For Myself.
Writing
Projects
Aim
The Tone Of Good Conversation Is Brilliant And Natural; It Is Neither Tedious Nor Frivolous; It Is Instructive Without Pedantry, Gay Without Tumultuousness, Polished Without Affectation, Gallant Without Insipidity, Waggish Without Equivocation.
Gay
Tone
Brilliant
Civilization Is A Hopeless Race To Discover Remedies For The Evils It Produces.
Race
Civilization
Evil
This Dog, Which, Although No Beauty, Was Of An Uncommon Breed, I Had Made My Friend And Companion; And It Certainly Deserved The Name Better Than The Majority Of Those Who Had Assumed It.
Dog
Names
In Any Case, Frequent Punishments Are A Sign Of Weakness Or Slackness In The Government. There Is No Man So Bad That He Cannot Be Made Good For Something. No Man Should Be Put To Death, Even As An Example, If He Can Be Left To Live Without Danger To Society.
Men
Weakness
Example
The Social Compact Sets Up Among The Citizens As Equality Of Such Kind, That They All Bind Themselves To Observe The Same Conditions And Should Therefore All Enjoy The Same Rights.
Rights
Citizens
Kind
An Intelligent Being, Is The Active Principle Of All Things. One Must Have Renounced All Common Sense To Doubt It, And It Is A Waste Of Time To Try To Prove Such Self Evident Truth.
Philosophy
Intelligent
Self
The Taste For Splendor Is Hardly Ever Combined In The Same Souls With The Taste For The Honorable.
Soul
Taste
Splendor
All Kinds Of Frankness And Honesty Are Terrible Crimes In The Eyes Of Society.
Honesty
Eye
Atheism
I Long Remained A Child, And I Am Still One In Many Respects.
Children
Long
Stills
Teach By Doing Whenever You Can, And Only Fall Back Upon Words When Doing It Is Out Of The Question.
Fall
Teach
Fall Back
Rather Suffer An Injustice Than Commit One.
Suffering
Libertarian
Injustice
It Is Hard To Prevent Oneself From Believing What One So Keenly Desires.
Believe
Desire
Oneself
It Is Believed That Physiognomy Is Only A Simple Development Of The Features Already Marked Out By Nature. It Is My Opinion, However, That In Addition To This Development, The Features Come Insensibly To Be Formed And Assume Their Shape From The Frequent And Habitual Expression Of Certain Affections Of The Soul. These Affections Are Marked On The Countenance; Nothing Is More Certain Than This; And When They Turn Into Habits, They Must Leave On It Durable Impressions.
Simple
Expression
Soul
To Endure Is The First Thing That A Child Ought To Learn, And That Which He Will Have The Most Need To Know.
Children
Philosophical
Learning
The Problem Is To Find A Form Of Association Which Will Defend And Protect With The Whole Common Force The Person And Goods Of Each Associate, And In Which Each, While Uniting Himself With All, May Still Obey Himself Alone, And Remain As Free As Before.
Government
Uniting
May
Take From The Philosopher The Pleasure Of Being Heard And His Desire For Knowledge Ceases.
Philosophical
Desire
Philosopher
I Remembered The Way Out Suggested By A Great Princess When Told That The Peasants Had No Bread: "well, Let Them Eat Cake".
Princess
Cake
Bread
Not All The Subtilties Of Metaphysics Can Make Me Doubt A Moment Of The Immortality Of The Soul, And Of A Beneficent Providence. I Feel It, I Believe It, I Desire It, I Hope It, And Will Defend It To My Last Breath.
Believe
Soul
Doubt
The Greatest Braggarts Are Usually The Biggest Cowards.
Coward
Cowardice
Braggarts
I Have Resolved On An Enterprise That Has No Precedent And Will Have No Imitator. I Want To Set Before My Fellow Human Beings A Man In Every Way True To Nature; And That Man Will Be Myself.
Men
Want
Way
Universal Silence Is Taken To Imply The Consent Of The People.
Taken
People
Silence
The Want Of Occupation Is No Less The Plague Of Society Than Of Solitude.
Solitude
Occupation
Want
The Strongest Is Never Strong Enough To Be Always The Master, Unless He Transforms Strength Into Right, And Obedience Into Duty.
Strength
Strong
Enough
We Pity In Others Only The Those Evils Which We Ourselves Have Experienced.
Sympathy
Philosophy
Philosophical
Teach Him To Live Rather Than To Avoid Death: Life Is Not Breath, But Action, The Use Of Our Senses, Our Mind, Our Faculties, Every Part Of Ourselves Which Makes Us Conscious Of Our Being. Life Consists Less In Length Of Days Than In The Keen Sense Of Living. A Man Maybe Buried At A Hundred And May Never Have Lived At All. He Would Have Fared Better Had He Died Young.
Men
Mind
Use
One May Live Tranquilly In A Dungeon; But Does Life Consist In Living Quietly?
May
Doe
Dungeons
Posterity Is Always Just.
Reputation
Posterity
There Is No Subjection So Perfect As That Which Keeps The Appearance Of Freedom.
Perfect
Appearance
Subjection
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.
Heart
Illumination
Soul
If, By Chance, Someone Among Those Men Of Extraordinary Talent Is Found Who Has Firmness Of Soul And Who Refuses To Yield To The Genius Of His Age And To Debase Himself With Childish Works, Woe Unto Him! He Will Die In Poverty And Oblivion.
Men
Woe Unto
Yield
Yes, If The Life And Death Of Socrates Are Those Of A Wise Man, The Life And Death Of Jesus Are Those Of A God.
Death
Wise
Jesus
Ordinary Readers, Forgive My Paradoxes: One Must Make Them When One Reflects; And Whatever You May Say, I Prefer Being A Man With Paradoxes Than A Man With Prejudices.
Men
Forgiving
Ordinary
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.
Support
World
Conquer
Religious Persecutors Are Not Believers, They Are Rascals.
Religious
Believer
Rascals
Remorse Sleeps During Prosperity But Awakes Bitter Consciousness During Adversity.
Philosophical
Adversity
Sleep
The Only Moral Lesson Which Is Suited For A Child--the Most Important Lesson For Every Time Of Life--is This: 'never Hurt Anybody.
Hurt
Children
Important
In Truth, Laws Are Always Useful To Those With Possessions And Harmful To Those Who Have Nothing; From Which It Follows That The Social State Is Advantageous To Men Only When All Possess Something And None Has Too Much.
Men
Law
Too Much
Falsehood Has An Infinity Of Combinations, But Truth Has Only One Mode Of Being.
Truth
Philosophical
Infinity
To Renounce Liberty Is To Renounce Being A Man, To Surrender The Rights Of Humanity And Even Its Duties.
Men
Rights
Humanity
We Cannot Work For Others Without Working For Ourselves.
With Children Use Force; With Men Reason; Such Is The Natural Order Of Things. The Wise Man Requires No Law.
Wise
Children
Men
Childhood Is The Sleep Of Reason. [fr., L'enfance Est Le Sommeil De La Raison.]
Sleep
Childhood
Reason
People Who Know Little Are Usually Great Talkers, While Men Who Know Much Say Little. It Is Plain That An Ignorant Person Thinks Everything He Does Know Important, And He Tells It To Everybody. But A Well-educated Man Is Not So Ready To Display His Learning; He Would Have Too Much To Say, And He Sees That There Is Much More To Be Said, So He Holds His Peace.
Knowledge
Men
Thinking
Whoever Refuses To Obey The General Will Will Be Forced To Do So By The Entire Body; This Means Merely That He Will Be Forced To Be Free.
Mean
Body
Refuse
We Are Reduced To Asking Others What We Are. We Never Dare To Ask Ourselves.
Identity
Asking
Dare
Accent Is The Soul Of Language; It Gives To It Both Feeling And Truth.
Giving
Soul
Feelings
Those People Who Treat Politics And Morality Separately Will Never Understand Either Of Them.
People
Morality
Treats
In The Strict Sense Of The Term, A True Democracy Has Never Existed, And Never Will Exist.
Democracies Have
Democracy
Existence
Abstract Truth Is The Eye Of Reason.
Truth
Eye
Reason
I Had Been Brought Up In A Church Which Decides Everything And Permits No Doubts, So That Having Rejected One Article Of Faith I Was Forced To Reject The Rest.
Doubt
Church
Revolution
Laws Are Always Useful To Those Who Possess And Vexatious To Those Who Have Nothing.
Law
Inopportune Consolations Increase A Deep Sorrow.
Sorrow
Increase
Consolation
Social Man Lives Constantly Outside Himself.
Men
Social
Days Of Absence, Sad And Dreary, Clothed In Sorrow's Dark Array, - Days Of Absence, I Am Weary; She I Love Is Far Away.
Love
I Miss You
Missing You
The Mind Grows Narrow In Proportion As The Soul Grows Corrupt.
Soul
Mind
Proportion
Man Is Born Free And Everywhere He Is In Chains.
Inspirational
Motivational
Freedom
Our Affections As Well As Our Bodies Are In Perpetual Flux.
Love
Philosophical
Romance
We Should Not Teach Children The Sciences; But Give Them A Taste For Them.
Education
Children
Teaching
Every Free Action Has Two Causes That Come Together To Produce It. One Is Moral, The Will That Determines The Act; The Other Is Physical, The Power That Executes The Will To Act.
Motivational
Moving
Two
Love Childhood, Indulge Its Sports, Its Pleasures, Its Delightful Instincts. Who Has Not Sometimes Regretted That Age When Laughter Was Ever On The Lips, And When The Heart Was Ever At Peace?
Sports
Laughter
Heart
The One Thing We Do Not Know Is The Limit Of The Knowable.
Knowledge
Limits
Knows
But In Some Great Souls, Who Consider Themselves As Citizens Of The World, And Forcing The Imaginary Barriers That Separate People From People.
People
Soul
Citizens
The World Of Reality Has Its Limits; The World Of Imagination Is Boundless.
Art
Philosophical
Reality
...in Respect Of Riches, No Citizen Shall Ever Be Wealthy Enough To Buy Another, And None Poor Enough To Be Forced To Sell Himself.
Citizens
Riches
Enough
I Bold It Impossible, That The Great Monarchies Of Europe Can Subsist Much Longer; They All Affect Magnificence And Splendor.
Thinking
Europe
Lasts
Too Much Apparatus, Designed To Guide Us In Experiments And To Supplement The Exactness Of Our Senses, Makes Us Neglect To Use Those Senses...the More Ingenious Our Apparatus, The Coarser And More Unskillful Are Our Senses. We Surround Ourselves With Tools And Fail To Use Those Which Nature Has Provided Every One Of Us.
Technology
Tools
Use
The English People Believes Itself To Be Free; It Is Gravely Mistaken; It Is Free Only During Election Of Members Of Parliament; As Soon As The Members Are Elected, The People Is Enslaved; It Is Nothing. In The Brief Moment Of Its Freedom, The English People Makes Such A Use Of That Freedom That It Deserves To Lose It.
Freedom
Believe
People
A Man Speaks Of What He Knows, A Woman Of What Pleases Her: The One Requires Knowledge, The Other Taste.
Knowledge
Men
Silence
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.
Change
Two
Yarn
Nature Wants Children To Be Children Before Men... Childhood Has Its Own Seeing, Thinking And Feeling.
Nature
Children
Men
It Is To Law Alone That Men Owe Justice And Liberty. It Is This Salutary Organ, Of The Will Of All Which Establishes In Civil Rights The Natural Equality Between Men. It Is This Celestial Voice Which Dictates To Each Citizen The Precepts Of Public Reason, And Teaches Him To Act According To The Rules Of His Own Judgment And Not To Behave Inconsistently With Himself. It Is With This Voice Alone That Political Leaders Should Speak When. They Command.
Men
Voice
Rights
We Lose All That Time Which We Might Employ Better.
Time
Purpose
Might
Love, Known To The Person By Whom It Is Inspired, Becomes More Bearable.
Inspired
Bearable
Persons
As Long As There Are Rich People In The World, They Will Be Desirous Of Distinguishing Themselves From The Poor.
Long
People
World
There Is Not A Single Ill-doer Who Could Not Be Turned To Some Good.
Doers
Ill
Whence Do I Get My Rules Of Conduct? I Find Them In My Heart. Whatever I Feel To Be Good Is Good. Whatever I Feel To Be Evil Is Evil. Conscience Is The Best Of Casuists.
Heart
Evil
Be Good
The Person Who Has Lived The Most Is Not The One With The Most Years But The One With The Richest Experiences.
Life
Time
Philosophical
God Made Me And Broke The Mold.
Mold
Broke
Made
Our Will Is Always For Our Own Good, But We Do Not Always See What That Is; The People Is Never Corrupted, But It Is Often Deceived, And On Such Occasions Only Does It Seem To Will What Is Bad.
People
Doe
Deceived
It Is Too Difficult To Think Nobly When One Thinks Only Of Earning A Living.
Life
Business
Philosophical
Base Souls Have No Faith In Great Individuals.
Faith
Soul
Individual
The Mechanism She Employs Is Much More Powerful Than Ours, For All Her Levers Move The Human Heart.
Powerful
Moving
Heart
Childhood Is The Sleep Of Reason.
Children
Sleep
Childhood
Great Men Never Make Bad Use Of Their Superiority. They See It And Feel It And Are Not Less Modest. The More They Have, The More They Know Their Own Deficiencies.
Greatness
Men
Use
Generally We Obtain Very Surely And Very Speedily What We Are Not Too Anxious To Obtain.
Anxiety
Anxious
All Of My Misfortunes Come From Having Thought Too Well Of My Fellows.
Philosophical
Wells
Fellows
A Citizen Should Render To The State All The Services He Can As Soon As The Sovereign Demands Them.
Citizens
Demand
Sovereign
There Is A Period Of Life When We Go Back As We Advance. [fr., Il Est Un Terme De La Vie Au-dela Duquel En Retrograde En Avancant.]
Progress
Periods
Retrograde
If There Is In This World A Well-attested Account, It Is That Of Vampires. Nothing Is Lacking: Official Reports, Affidavits Of Well-known People, Of Surgeons, Of Priests, Of Magistrates; The Judicial Proof Is Most Complete. And With All That, Who Is There Who Believes In Vampires?
Believe
People
Vampire
The English People Think They Are Free; They Are Greatly Deceived; They Are Free Only During The Election Of Members Of Parliament.
Freedom
Thinking
Election
Self-love Is An Instrument Useful But Dangerous; It Often Wounds The Hand Which Makes Use Of It, And Seldom Does Good Without Doing Harm.
Love Is
Self
Hands
Men And Women Are Made For Each Other, But Their Mutual Dependence Differs In Degrees; Man Is Dependent On Woman Through His Desires; Woman Is Dependent On Man Through Her Desires And Also Through Her Needs; He Could Do Without Her Better Than She Can Do Without Him. She Cannot Fulfill Her Purpose In Life Without His Aid, Without His Goodwill, Without His Respect.....nature Herself Has Decreed That Woman, Both For Herself And Her Children, Should Be At The Mercy Of Man S Judgment.
Children
Men
Desire
To Renounce Freedom Is To Renounce One's Humanity, One's Rights As A Man And Equally One's Duties.
Men
Rights
Humanity
Women Speak At An Earlier Age, More Easily, And More Agreeably Than Men; They Are Accused Also Of Speaking More; This Is As It Should Be, And I Willingly Change The Reproach Into A Eulogy.
Men
Eulogy
Age
Liberty Is Obedience To The Law Which One Has Laid Down For Oneself
Law
Liberty
Obedience
Men Speak From Knowledge, Women From Imagination.
Men
Imagination
Speak
He Who Pretends To Look On Death Without Fear Lies. All Men Are Afraid Of Dying, This Is The Great Law Of Sentient Beings, Without Which The Entire Human Species Would Soon Be Destroyed.
Death
Lying
Men
But Remain The Teacher Of The Young Teachers. Advise And Direct Us, And We Will Be Ready To Learn. I Will Have Need Of You As Long As I Live.
Teacher
Teaching
Long
Temperance And Labor Are The Two Real Physicians Of Man.
Real
Men
Two
I May Not Amount To Much, But At Least I Am Unique.
Unique
Being Unique
May
And When The Relics Of Humanity Left Among The Spaniards Induced Them To Forbid Their Lawyers To Set Foot In America, What Must They Have Thought Of Jurisprudence? May It Not Be Said That They Thought, By This Single Expedient, To Make Reparation For All The Outrages They Had Committed Against The Unhappy Indians?
Feet
America
Humanity
If All Were Perfect Christians, Individuals Would Do Their Duty; The People Would Be Obedient To The Laws, The Magistrates Incorrupt, And There Would Be Neither Vanity Nor Luxury In Such A State.
Christian
Vanity
Law
We Are Born, So To Speak, Twice Over; Born Into Existence, And Born Into Life; Born A Human Being, And Born A Man.
Men
Birth
Speak
The French Painter Rousseau Was Once Asked Why He Put A Naked Woman On A Red Sofa In The Middle Of His Jungle Pictures. He Answered, 'i Needed A Bit Of Red There.'
Naked
Red
Middle
He Who Blushes Is Already Guilty.
Guilty
The World Is The Book Of Women. Whatever Knowledge They May Possess Is More Commonly Acquired By Observation Than By Reading.
Women
Reading
Book
Our Greatest Misfortunes Come To Us From Ourselves.
Misfortunes
Trust Your Heart Rather Than Your Head.
Heart
Trust Your Heart
You Are Worried About Seeing Him Spend His Early Years In Doing Nothing. What! Is It Nothing To Be Happy? Nothing To Skip, Play And Run Around All Day Long? Never In His Life Will He Be So Busy Again.
Happiness
Running
Children
Do Not Base Your Life On The Judgments Of Others; First, Because They Are As Likely To Be Mistaken As You Are, And Further, Because You Cannot Know That They Are Telling You Their True Thoughts.
Firsts
Judgment
Mistaken
Men Will Argue More Philosophically About The Human Heart; But Women Will Read The Heart Of Man Better Than They.
Heart
Men
Arguing
I Would Rather Be A Man Of Paradoxes Than A Man Of Prejudices.
Men
Prejudice
Paradox
Men, In General, Are Not This Or That, They Are What They Are Made To Be.
Men
Society
Human Nature
He Who Eats In Idleness That Which He Himself Has Not Earned, Steals It; And A Capitalist Whom The State Pays For Doing Nothing Differs Little In My Eyes From A Brigand, Who Lives At The Expense Of Passers-by.
Eye
Littles
Pay
I Hate Books; They Only Teach People To Talk About What They Don't Understand.
Success
Hate
Book
Behold The Works Of Our Philosophers; With All Their Pompous Diction, How Mean And Contemptible They Are By Comparison With The Scriptures! Is It Possible That A Book At Once So Simple And Sublime Should Be Merely The Work Of Man?
Book
Mean
Simple
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