To reign by opinion, begin by trampling it under your feet.

- Jean-Baptiste Rousseau

The right of conquest has no foundation other than the right of the strongest.

- Jean-Baptiste Rousseau

Men always love what is good or what they find good; it is in judging what is good that they go wrong.

- Jean-Baptiste Rousseau

Every artist loves applause. The praise of his contemporaries is the most valuable part of his recompense.

- Jean-Baptiste Rousseau

Truth is no road to fortune.

- Jean-Baptiste Rousseau

Do we wish men to be virtuous? Then let us begin by making them love their country.

- Jean-Baptiste Rousseau

Readiness of speech is often inability to hold the tongue.

- Jean-Baptiste Rousseau

Astronomy was born of superstition; eloquence of ambition, hatred, falsehood, and flattery; geometry of avarice; physics of an idle curiosity; and ev…

- Jean-Baptiste Rousseau

The less reasonable a cult is, the more men seek to establish it by force.

- Jean-Baptiste Rousseau