Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Days of absence, sad and dreary,_x000D_ Clothed in sorrow's dark array, -_x000D_ Days of absence, I am weary;_x000D_ She I love is far away.

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

The word ‘slavery’ and ‘right’ are contradictory, they cancel each other out. Whether as between one man and another, or between one man and a whole people, it would always be absurd to say: "I hereby make a covenant with you which is wholly at your expense and wholly to my advantage; I will respect it so long as I please and you shall respect it as long as I wish.

What, then, is the government? An intermediary body established between the subjects and the sovereign for their mutual communication, and charged with the execution of the laws and the maintenance of freedom, civil as well as political.

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

Heroes are not known by the loftiness of their carriage; the greatest braggarts are generally the merest cowards.

Liberty is obedience to the law which one has laid down for oneself

I bold it impossible, that the great monarchies of Europe can subsist much longer; they all affect magnificence and splendor.

The mechanism she employs is much more powerful than ours, for all her levers move the human heart.

Cities are the abyss of the human species.

I hate books; they only teach people to talk about what they don't understand.

Temperance and labor are the two real physicians of man.

Never exceed your rights, and they will soon become unlimited.

Remorse sleeps during a prosperous period but wakes up in adversity.

Trust your heart rather than your head.

Every artists wants to be applauded

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.

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

I prefer liberty with danger than peace with slavery.