Patience patience quotes is bitter, but its fruit is sweet.
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.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote warns against the falsehood of ownership and emphasizes shared stewardship of the earth's resources.
In this quote, Jean-Jacques Rousseau critiques the notion of ownership, suggesting that all people should have access to the Earth's resources, as they belong to everyone collectively, rather than being the property of a select few. By referring to ownership as an 'impostor', he encourages individuals to recognize the truth that the earth and its bounty should be shared, thus implying a deeper philosophical perspective on human society and our relationship with nature.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
In a debate about land rights and ownership, this quote can be used to emphasize the importance of communal stewardship.
More from Jean-Jacques Rousseau
All quotes βThe infant, on opening his eyes, ought to see his country, and to the hour of his death never lose sight of it.
What wisdom can you find that is greater than kindness?
O love, if I regret the age when one savors you, it is not for the hour of pleasure, but for the one that follows it.
Those people who treat politics and morality separately will never understand either of them.
As evening approached, I came down from the heights of the island, and I liked then to go and sit on the shingle in some secluded spot by the lake; there the noise of the waves and the movement of the water, taking hold of my senses and driving all other agitation from my soul, would plunge me into delicious reverie in which night often stole upon me unawares.
Similar quotes
There are souls that are incurable and lost to the rest of society. Deprive them of one means of folly, they will invent ten thousand others. They will create subtler, wilder methods, methods that are absolutely DESPERATE. Nature herself is fundamentally antisocial, it is only by a usurpation of powers that the organized body of society opposes the natural inclination of humanity.
History is the fruit of power, but power itself is never so transparent that its analysis becomes superfluous. The ultimate mark of power may be its invisibility; the ultimate challenge, the exposition of its roots.
This land is your land, this land is my land
Everytime a child says 'I don't believe in fairies' there is a a little fairy somewhere that falls down dead.
All governments lie, but disaster lies in wait for countries whose officials smoke the same hashish they give out.
Opinions are formed in a process of open discussion and public debate, and where no opportunity for the forming of opinions exists, there may be moods -moods of the masses and moods of individuals, the latter no less fickle and unreliable than the former -but no opinion.