# Jean-Jacques Rousseau's greatest quotes

From The Social Contract to Emile, from the Confessions to the Reveries of the Solitary Walker: the Rousseau lines still quoted today, with the work they come from.

- 0 votes · 15 items
- Jul 19, 2020 · zen.tranquille
- https://even.best/en/l/3025/jean-jacques-rousseau-s-greatest-quotes

## Top 15

1. **Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains.** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — The Social Contract (1762), book I, chapter 1.
2. **The first man who, having fenced off a plot of land, thought of saying 'This is mine'… was the true founder of civil society.** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — Discourse on Inequality (1755), part two.
3. **Everything is good as it leaves the hands of the Author of things; everything degenerates in the hands of man.** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — Emile, or On Education (1762), first sentence.
4. **The strongest is never strong enough to be always master, unless he turns his strength into right and obedience into duty.** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — The Social Contract, book I, chapter 3 ('On the right of the strongest').
5. **… which means nothing other than that he will be forced to be free.** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — The Social Contract, book I, chapter 7, on the general will.
6. **Money buys everything except morals and citizens.** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — Discourse on the Arts and Sciences (1750).
7. **To live is not to breathe, but to act.** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — Emile, book I.
8. **I would rather be a man of paradoxes than a man of prejudices.** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — Emile, book II.
9. **All wickedness comes from weakness; the child is only bad because he is weak; make him strong and he will be good.** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — Emile, book I.
10. **I want to show my fellows a man in all the truth of nature; and that man will be myself.** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — The Confessions, book one, opening.
11. **The pleasure of having is not worth the trouble of acquiring.** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — The Confessions, book one.
12. **Liberty is a nourishing food, but hard to digest; it takes very healthy stomachs to bear it.** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — Considerations on the Government of Poland.
13. **Let us always be truthful, whatever may come of it.** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — Reveries of the Solitary Walker, fourth walk.
14. **One may shine through finery, but one only pleases through oneself.** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — Emile, book V.
15. **Be just, and you will be happy.** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — Emile, book IV (Creed of a Savoyard Priest).

How is this ranking ordered? By people's votes: each ▲ adds a point and each ▼ takes one away. Anyone can vote and add what is missing.