Wise words from Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Jean-Jacques Rousseau, June 28, 1712 – July 2 1778, was a Swiss-born writer, philosopher, and composer. His philosophy greatly influenced the Age of Enlightenment and French Revolution.

Below we list some words of wisdom from Jean-Jacques Rousseau.

“There are always four sides to a story: your side, their side, the truth and what really happened.”

“The money you have gives you freedom; the money you pursue enslaves you.”

“By doing good we become good.”

“What wisdom can you find that is greater than kindness?”

“It is hard to prevent oneself from believing what one so keenly desires.”

“Why should we build our happiness on the opinons of others, when we can find it in our own hearts?”

“People who know little are usually great talkers, while men who know much say little.”

“Once you teach people to say what they do not understand, it is easy enough to get them to say anything you like.”

“Trust your heart rather than your head.”

“No one is happy unless he respects himself.”

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

“The only moral lesson which is suited for a child--the most important lesson for every time of life--is this: 'Never hurt anybody.’”

“All kinds of frankness and honesty are terrible crimes in the eyes of society.”

“Social man lives constantly outside himself.”

“Remorse sleeps during prosperity but awakes bitter consciousness during adversity.”

“Gratitude is a duty which ought to be paid, but which none have a right to expect.”

“Do not judge, and you will never be mistaken.”

“Falsehood has an infinity of combinations, but truth has only one mode of being.”

“Conscience is the voice of the soul, the passions are the voice of the body. Is it astonishing that often these two languages contradict each other, and then to which must we listen? Too often reason deceives us; we have only too much acquired the right of refusing to listen to it; but conscience never deceives us; it is the true guide of man; it is to man what instinct is to the body; which follows it, obeys nature, and never is afraid of going astray.”

“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?”

“The one thing we do not know is the limit of the knowable.”

“I perceive God everywhere in His works. I sense Him in me; I see Him all around me.”

“The visible order of the universe proclaims a supreme intelligence.”

“Had I no other proof of the immortality of the soul than the oppression of the just and the triumph of the wicked in this world, this alone would prevent my having the least doubt of it. So shocking a discord amidst a general harmony of things would make me naturally look for a cause; I should say to myself we do not cease to exist with this life; everything reassumes its order after death.”

Copyright © Scott Petullo, Stephen Petullo