Patience patience quotes is bitter, but its fruit is sweet.
Jean-Jacques RousseauRead
We have to have powder for our wigs; that is why so many poor people have no bread.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Rousseau critiques societal priorities, highlighting how luxury consumes resources at the expense of the needy.
In this quote, Jean-Jacques Rousseau draws attention to the absurdity of societal values where the frivolous need for appearance, represented by powdered wigs, takes precedence over basic human necessities like food. He suggests that the obsession with luxury and status directly contributes to the suffering of the poor, as resources that could provide bread are instead allocated to maintaining an aristocratic image.
Themes
SocietyLuxuryResourcesInequalityPoverty
In practice
Example use cases
During a speech about wealth inequality, one could use this quote to illustrate the disconnect between the rich and the poor.
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.
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What wisdom can you find that is greater than kindness?
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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.
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Those people who treat politics and morality separately will never understand either of them.
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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
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