Patience patience quotes is bitter, but its fruit is sweet.
Jean-Jacques RousseauRead
I have never thought, for my part, that man's freedom consists in his being able to do whatever he wills, but that he should not, by any human power, be forced to do what is against his will.
Interpretation
What this quote means
True freedom is not doing anything we desire, but rather the absence of coercion against our will.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau emphasizes that freedom is not merely the capability to act on our wishes, but fundamentally about being free from external forces that compel us to act against our own desires. This perspective shifts the understanding of freedom from merely the ability to choose to a deeper concept of autonomy, where true liberty involves the protection of individual will from oppression and influence.
Themes
FreedomWillAutonomyCoercionLiberty
In practice
Example use cases
This quote is perfect for a discussion on human rights and individual liberties.
More from Jean-Jacques Rousseau
All quotes →The infant, on opening his eyes, ought to see his country, and to the hour of his death never lose sight of it.
Jean-Jacques RousseauRead
What wisdom can you find that is greater than kindness?
Jean-Jacques RousseauRead
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.
Jean-Jacques RousseauRead
Those people who treat politics and morality separately will never understand either of them.
Jean-Jacques RousseauRead
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.
Jean-Jacques RousseauRead
Similar quotes
This symmetrical composition--the same motif at the beginning and at the end--may seem quite "novelistic" to you, and I am willing to agree, but only on condition that you refrain from reading such notions as "fictive," "fabricated," and "untrue to life" into the word "novelistic." Because human lives are composed in precisely such a fashion.
Milan KunderaRead
When the supreme magistrate will not execute the judgment of the Lord, those who made him supreme magistrate, under God, who have under God, sovereighn liberty to dispose of crowns and kingdoms, are to execute the judgment of the Lord, when wicked men make the law of God of none effect.
Samuel RutherfordRead
The minor choices we make are themselves a kind of vote. Our words and gestures, or their absence, count very much.
Timothy D. SnyderRead
I really enjoy forgetting. When I first come to a place, I notice all the little details. I notice the way the sky looks. The color of white paper. The way people walk. Doorknobs. Everything. Then I get used to the place and I don't notice those things anymore. So only by forgetting can I see the place again as it really is.
David ByrneRead
Slavery takes hold of few, but many take hold of slavery.
Seneca The YoungerRead
If I hear about a tsunami that hit Asia, hundreds of people have lost their lives, and you see it and you hear about it, but you still brush your teeth, still have to go on with your day. But let you get information about one person who you're close to or you're intimate with, it has an almost paralyzing effect.
Ryan CooglerRead