QuoteProject
One must choose between making a man or a citizen, for one cannot make both at the same time.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

This quote emphasizes the dichotomy between individualism and civic responsibility.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau presents the idea that when fostering individual identity in a person, it often comes at the expense of their role as a citizen in society. This suggests that the nurturing of personal freedoms can conflict with the demands and values of the community, and thus, one must prioritize one over the other in their developmental focus.

Themes

CitizenIndividualismResponsibilitySocietyChoice

In practice

Example use cases

During a political debate, one could use this quote to illustrate the conflict between individual rights and societal obligations.

More from Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Patience patience quotes is bitter, but its fruit is sweet.
Jean-Jacques RousseauRead
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

Once upon a time' lasts forever.
Philip PullmanRead
Force and mind are opposites; morality ends where a gun begins.
Ayn RandRead
The purpose of abstraction is not to be vague, but to create a new semantic level in which one can be absolutely precise.
Edsger DijkstraRead
Conflict is a violation of harmony. If you participate in it, you're part of the problem, not the solution.
Wayne DyerRead
If a man thinks he is not conceited, he is very conceited indeed.
C. S. LewisRead
A city is where you can sign a petition, boo the chief justice, fish off a pier, gaze at a hippopotamus, buy a flower at the corner, or get a good hamburger or a bad girl at 4 A.M. A city is where sirens make white streaks of sound in the sky and foghorns speak in dark grays. San Francisco is such a city.
Herb CaenRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.

Quote by Jean-Jacques Rousseau | QuoteProject